-P165 
1908 
v.l 


-4 


AM 


.1  ii  li  ^-J/ .. 


CONTAINING  A  BIOGRAPHY  BY  THOMAS 
CLIO  RICKMAN  AND  APPRECIATIONS  BY 
LESLIE  STEPHEN,  LORD  ERSKINE,  PAUL 
DESJARDINS,  ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL, 
ELBERT  HUBBARD  AND  MARILLA  M.  RICKER 


EDITED  AND  ANNOTATED  BY 

DANIEL  EDWIN  WHEELER 


VINCENT  PARKE  AND  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


COPYRIGHT,  1908,  BY 
VINCENT  PARKE  AND  COMPANY 


LIFE  AND  APPRECIATION! 

OF 

THOMAS  PAINE 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction  -------        ix 

Rickman  Preface    ------     xvii 

Life  of  Thomas  Paine 

By  Thomas  Clio  Rickman         -         -         -         1 

Erskine's  Defense  of  Paine  86 

Thomas  Paine:   Father  of  Republics 

By  Paul  Desjardins         -  197 

Paine  in  the  American  Revolution 

By  Leslie   Stephen         -  275 

Thomas  Paine.    By  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  -     287 

A  Little  Journey  to  the  Home  of  Thomas 

Paine.    By  Elbert  Hubbard     -  311 

A  Square  Deal 

By  Marilla  M.  Ricker     -  342 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Thomas  Paine     -----     Frontispiece 

Goupilgravure  from  an  Engraving  by  Will- 
iam Sharp  of  the  Original  Painting  by 
George  Romney 

Lord  Erskine  -         -         -         -         -         -196 

Photogravure  from  an  old  Engraving  by 
George  E.  Perine  of  the  Original  Painting 

The  Thomas  Paine  Farm         -  274 

Photogravure  from  an  Original  Photograph 
of  the  Home  of  Thomas  Paine  at  New  Ro- 
chelle,  N.Y. 

Monument  to  Thomas  Paine    -         -         -         -     310 
Photogravure  from  an  Original  Photograph 
of  the  Monument  at  New  Rochelle,  N.Y. 


Vll 


INTRODUCTION 

NEITHER  biographical  nor  critical  disqui- 
sition is  necessary  here,  for  the  eminent 
writers  presented  in  this  volume  cover  every  es- 
sential point  in  the  career  of  Thomas  Paine.  Es- 
pecially worthy  of  note  is  our  international 
critique  on  the  extraordinary  writings  and  world- 
wide services  of  the  most  illustrious  apostle 
of  freedom  mankind  has  ever  known.  Combine 
the  candid,  intimate  account  of  Paine  by  his 
bosom  friend,  Thomas  Clio  Rickman;  the  mar- 
velous forensic  effort  made  in  behalf  of  "Rights 
of  Man"  by  Lord  Erskine;  the  charming  bit  of 
appreciation  from  the  scholarly  pen  of  Leslie 
Stephen ;  the  keen  psychological  analysis  of  Paul 
Desjardins,  whose  essay  is  now  translated  into 
English  for  the  first  time ;  the  eloquent  oration  by 
Robert  Ingersoll;  the  brilliant  contributions  by 
Elbert  Hubbard  and  Marilla  M.  Ricker,  and  to- 
gether they  form  a  literary  symposium  of  excep- 
tional strength,  representative  of  the  three  coun- 
tries for  which  Paine  incessantly,  unselfishly  la- 
bored. Only  a  succinct  resume  of  his  achieve- 
ments will,  therefore,  be  possible  or  permissible  in 
this  place.  To  facilitate  the  purpose  an  effort 
will  be  made  to  draw  up  a  scenario  of  that  thril- 
ling drama,  the  life-work  of  Thomas  Paine, 
author-hero. 

The  prologue,  extending  over  a  period  of 
thirty-seven  years,  is  not  too  promising,  unless 
the  reader  is  prepared  to  find  in  repeated  failures 
stimuli  to  success.    Everything  Paine  followed, 

ix 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

whether  as  staymaker,  sailor,  teacher,  exciseman 
or  tobacconist,  led  him  to  the  same  bitter  end — 
failure.  Two  things,  however,  he  could  do :  argue 
and  write.  As  a  disputant  he  was  locally  famed, 
and  as  a  writer  he  displayed  unusual  power  in 
his  plea  for  his  fellow  excisemen.  Benjamin 
Franklin,  coming  into  his  life,  was  the  shrewd  and 
wise  stage  manager  who  advised  a  change  of 
scene,  and  Paine  embarked  for  America,  where 
began  the  great  first  act  of  his  noble  life.  But 
before  opening  that  act  it  would  be  well  to 
touch  upon  one  significant,  though  mooted,  phase 
of  the  prologue.  According  to  a  well-founded 
theory — at  least  as  good  as  any  competitive  one 
— Paine  was  Junius,  and  this  has  been  proved  by 
skilful  and  subtle  analogy.  Howbeit,  it  is  re- 
ferred to  here  simply  to  arouse  curiosity  and 
speculation,  and  perhaps  will  instigate  further 
research.  In  any  event  the  supposition  that 
Paine  and  Junius  were  the  same  individual  partly 
explains  the  amazing  authorship  of  the  former 
upon  reaching  these  shores. 

Arriving  in  America,  Paine  became  a  tutor, 
but  the  opportunity  offered  itself  for  him  to  edit 
the  Pennsylvania  Magazine,  and  from  the  begin- 
ning his  contributions  were  strikingly  original. 
One  article  advocated  the  abolition  of  negro 
slavery,  and  may  be  said  to  have  anticipated  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  by  a  century,  (and 
it  should  be  remembered  that  Lincoln  in  his 
twenties  read  Paine  with  enthusiasm)  ;  another 


INTRODUCTION 

essay  was  directed  against  the  evil  of  dueling ;  an- 
other dealt  with  the  "woman  question"  and  urged 
the  civil  and  social  rights  of  the  fair  sex ;  while  still 
another  favored  the  formation  of  societies  to  pre- 
vent cruelty  to  animals  and  children.  All  of  which 
were  in  advance  of  Nineteenth  Century  reforms. 

Then  this  seer  "with  genius  in  his  eyes"  wrote 
a  paper  called  "A  Serious  Thought"  which  was 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  embryo. 
This  was  eight  months  before  the  epoch-making 
charter  of  American  freedom  was  drawn.  Apro- 
pos of  that  immortal  document,  many  believe 
Paine  its  author.  At  least  it  is  known  Jefferson 
was  in  constant  communication  with  Paine,  and 
to  the  latter  is  credited,  without  question,  the 
clause  against  slavery,  which  was  stricken  out  of 
the  Declaration  by  Congress.  If  that  clause  had 
remained  the  Civil  War  had  not  been  fought.  Its 
author  alone  in  his  time  foresaw  the  consequences 
of  slavery.  He,  too,  stands  responsible  for  the 
anti-slavery  preamble  to  the  act  passed  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Assembly  March  1,  1870. 

To  return  to  the  magazine  writer:  while 
Washington  was  deprecating  the  possibility  of 
separation  from  the  mother  country,  and  while 
Franklin  was  in  England  reassuring  that  Gov- 
ernment of  peaceful  measures  on  the  part  of  the 
colonies,  Paine  realized  the  inevitable  rupture. 
Heart  and  soul  aflame,  he  turned  over  the  ques- 
tion day  and  night — the  result  was  "Common 
Sense,"  the  pamphlet  that  decided  the  destiny  of 

xi 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  United  States.  It  sounded  the  tocsin  of  re- 
bellion, and  war  enveloped  the  country.  Shoul- 
dering a  musket,  Paine  joined  the  rank  and  file, 
and  won  reputation  as  a  brave  soldier.  Then, 
during  the  darkest  hours  of  the  strife  he  took  up 
his  pen  and  wrote  his  first  "Crisis,"  which  infused 
courage  into  the  army.  From  time  to  time,  as 
occasion  demanded,  he  penned  similar  papers, 
and  so  he  deserves  to  be  called  the  Tyrtaeus  of 
the  American  Revolution.  Nor  must  be  forgot- 
ten the  services  rendered  the  cause  when,  with 
Colonel  Laurens,  Paine  went  to  France,  where 
they  borrowed  money  with  which  to  feed  and 
clothe  the  suffering  soldiers;  and  again  when 
Paine  headed  with  a  five-hundred  dollar  subscrip- 
tion (practically  all  his  money)  a  fund  to  sup- 
port the  war.  In  passing  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  this  action  resulted  in  the  establishment  of 
the  Bank  of  North  America. 

After  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  he 
urged  stronger  union  among  the  States,  and 
pointed  out  the  necessity  of  a  Constitution. 
About  this  time  his  invaluable  services  were  rec- 
ognized by  Pennsylvania  and  Congress,  both  of 
which  voted  him  money,  and  by  New  York,  which 
granted  him  some  two  hundred  acres  in  New 
Rochelle.  There  was  nothing  exceptionally  gen- 
erous in  these  actions,  for  Paine  had  given  the 
copyright  of  his  unequaled  pamphlets  to  every 
state,  and  had  labored  unceasingly  for  the  cause 
with  meager  recompense, 
xii 


INTRODUCTION 

His  design  of  a  model  for  an  iron  bridge  led 
Paine  to  cross  the  ocean  for  the  approval  of 
French  scientists,  and  also  opened  the  stormy 
second  act  of  his  life-drama.  Its  details  are  com- 
prehensively given  in  the  present  volume,  but 
there  is  no  resisting  the  temptation  to  allude  to 
his  extraordinary  role  in  the  French  Revolution, 
after  he  had  written  the  "Rights  of  Man."  That 
book  had  convulsed  England  and  its  fearless  au- 
thor had  been  condemned.  Escaping  the  officers 
of  the  King,  Paine  fled  to  Paris,  where  he  was 
made  a  citizen.  Then  followed  wonderful  months 
of  counsel  in  shaping  the  new  republic,  all  to  no 
end,  for  Paine  was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he 
languished  upwards  of  a  year,  unheeded,  ne- 
glected. By  a  seeming  miracle  he  escaped  the 
guillotine.  During  these  days  of  horror  and 
blood,  Paine  wrote  his  most  maltreated  and  most 
misunderstood  book,  "The  Age  of  Reason,"  which 
was  originally  given  to  the  world  to  counteract 
the  spread  of  atheism!  Distinctly  and  repeat- 
edly he  affirms  his  belief  in  a  Supreme  Being. 
Confirmatory  of  this  we  witness  him  founding  a 
Theophilanthropist  Society  for  the  worship  of 
God  and  the  love  of  fellow-men.  Thus  he  became 
a  pioneer  in  the  field  of  theistic  and  ethical  bodies. 
But  Theophilanthropy  was  swept  away  by  the 
Concordat  between  Napoleon  and  the  Pope. 

Disappointed  in  both  political  and  religious 
ideals  in  France,  Paine  turned  his  face  toward 
his  "beloved  America,"  and  at  that  point  begins 

xiii 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  sad  last  act  of  our  drama.  Instead  of  a  haven 
of  peace,  he  found  the  United  States  a  nest  of 
vipers.  Forgotten  were  his  heroic  services  in  the 
Revolution,  because  he  had  turned  "infidel." 
Therefore,  his  declining  years  were  made  miser- 
able, and  his  death  welcomed  by  the  inhabitants 
of  the  country  he  had  helped  to  create. 

For  giving  to  America  his  "Common  Sense" 
and  "Crisis,"  for  giving  to  England  and  France 
his  "Rights  of  Man,"  for  giving  to  the  world  his 
"Age  of  Reason,"  for  endeavoring  to  give  politi- 
cal and  religious  liberty  to  mankind — he  was 
prosecuted,  burnt  in  effigy  in  England,  cast  into 
prison  and  condemned  to  death  in  France,  and  vil- 
ified and  rejected  by  America.  Because  he  advo- 
cated the  "religion  of  humanity"  and  the  "repub- 
lic of  the  world"  he  was  deprived  of  country  and 
creed,  doomed  to  wander  the  earth  in  pursuit  of 
his  glorious  dream,  which  was  not  to  be  realized. 

But  let  us,  as  an  epilogue  to  our  rapidly 
sketched  drama,  recapitulate  the  undeniable  and 
undying  thoughts  and  activities  of  Thomas 
Paine. 

He  was  first  to  advocate  the  emancipation  of 
the  negro  in  America. 

He  was  first  to  say  "the  American  nation," 
"the  Free  and  Independent  States  of  America." 

He  was  first  to  propose  constitutional  govern- 
ment to  the  United  States. 

He  was  first  to  form  a  plan  of  international 
arbitration. 

xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

He  was  a  pioneer  in  national  and  internation- 
al copyright. 

He  was  an  early  supporter  of  the  plan  to  pur- 
chase Louisiana  from  France. 

He  was  a  pioneer  in  the  question  of  the  rights 
of  women. 

He  was  first  to  propose  and  see  the  advan- 
tages of  commercial  alliance  between  the  great 
countries  of  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

He  was  largely  responsible  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Bank  of  North  America. 

Had  France  heeded  him  the  Reign  of  Terror 
would  never  have  come  to  pass. 

Had  the  United  States  heeded  him  the  Civil 
War  could  not  have  happened. 

He  projected  land  reforms  more  practical 
than  those  of  Henry  George. 

He  outlined  an  industrial  and  wage  system 
more  practical  than  the  socialist  schemes  of  latter 
days. 

He  invented  the  first  iron  bridge  used  in 
Europe. 

He  inferred  that  the  fixed  stars  were  suns, 
twenty  years  before  Herschel. 

He  rightfully  surmised  the  cause  of,  and 
thereby  pointed  to  the  remedy  for  yellow  fever. 

He  devised  the  plan  to  utilize  small  ex- 
plosions of  gun  powder  to  run  an  engine. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  to  suggest  the  applica- 
tion of  steam  to  vessels — in  fact,  had  made  plans 
for  steamboats  seven  years  before  John  Fitch. 

xv 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

He  forged  a  model  of  a  crane  with  an  im- 
proved lever;  invented  a  planing  machine;  and 
experimented  on  a  smokeless  candle. 

Does  this  man  not  deserve  the  honor  of  being 
called  the  Eighteenth  Century  Archimedes,  as 
well  as  its  political  and  religious  prophet? 

History  continually  revises  her  statements  at 
the  command  of  truth,  and  the  latter  is  slowly,  cer- 
tainly rehabilitating  the  name  and  fame  of  Paine. 
The  slime  of  a  mythology  which  has  for  over  a 
century  stained  his  reputation  is  disappearing  and 
the  prophet  pamphleteer  is  coming  into  his  own. 

Villainous  type  and  paper  have  been  usually 
employed  to  print  the  writings  of  our  author,  but 
at  last  we  hope  to  have  provided  a  format  worthy 
of  the  mighty  man  who  changed  the  course  of 
the  world  with  his  pen.  This  edition,  the  reader 
will  observe,  presents  all  of  Paine's  writings  in 
modern  spelling,  save  in  few  instances  where  it 
has  been  thought  better  to  preserve  a  character- 
istic word  of  the  author.  For  greater  clearness 
new  punctuation  has  been  substituted.  Finally, 
attention  is  called  to  the  condensation  of  the 
Rickman  "Life,"  from  which  have  been  cut 
lengthy  quotations  from  Paine,  all  of  which  are 
in  the  body  of  the  work.  Unnecessary  repetition 
is  thereby  avoided. 

Acknowledgments  are  gratefully  made  to 
Mr.  C.  P.  Farrell  for  the  reprint  of  the  Ingersoll 
oration,  and  to  Elbert  Hubbard  and  Marilla  M. 
Ricker  for  the  kind  permission  to  use  their  es- 
says. 

xvi 


PREFACE  TO  RICKMAN'S  "LIFE" 

THE  two  following  letters  are  explanatory 
of  the  reasons  why  the  publication  of  the 
life  of  Mr.  Paine  has  been  so  long  delayed, 
and  are  so  well  calculated  to  excite  the  candor  of 
the  reader  toward  the  work,  that  no  apology  is 
offered  for  making  them  a  part  of  the  preface. 

"To  the  Editor  of  the  Universal  Magazine: 
[November,  1811.] 

"ON  MR.  CLIO  RICKMAN^  SUPPOSED  UNDERTAKING 
OF  THE  "LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE' 

"Sir:  The  public  has  been,  within  the  last 
year  or  two,  led  to  expect  a  Life  of  the  celebrated 
Thomas  Paine,  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Clio  Rick- 
man,  well  known,  on  various  accounts,  to  be  more 
thoroughly  qualified  for  that  task  than  any  other 
person  in  this  country. 

"This  information,  however,  I  repeat  as  I  re- 
ceived it,  uncertain  whether  it  came  abroad  in 
any  authenticated  shape;  and  can  only  add,  that 
no  doubt  need  be  entertained  of  sufficient  atten- 
tion from  the  public  in  times  like  the  present,  to 
a  well-written  life  of  that  extraordinary  charac- 

xvii 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

ter,  whose  principles  and  precepts  are  at  this 
moment  in  full  operation  over  the  largest  and 
richest  portion  of  the  habitable  globe,  and  which 
in  regular  process  of  time  may,  from  the  effica- 
cious influence  of  the  glorious  principles  of  free- 
dom, become  the  grand  theater  of  civilization. 

"I  have  often  desired  to  make  a  communica- 
tion of  this  kind  to  your  magazine,  but  am  par- 
ticularly impelled  thereto  at  this  moment,  from 
observing  in  some  periodical  publications  devoted 
to  political  and  religious  bigotry,  a  sample  of 
their  usual  sophistical  accounts  of  the  last  mo- 
ments of  men  who  have  been  in  life  eminent  for 
the  independence  and  freedom  of  their  opinions ; 
but  the  whole  that  the  bigot  to  whom  I  allude 
has  been  able  to  effect  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Paine, 
amounts  to  an  acknowledgment  that  the  philoso- 
pher died  steadfast  to  those  opinions  of  religion 
in  which  he  had  lived ;  and  the  disappointment  is 
plain  enough  to  be  seen,  that  similar  forgeries 
could  not,  with  any  prospect  of  success,  be  cir- 
culated concerning  Paine's  tergiversation  and 
death-bed  conversion,  which  were  so  greedily 
swallowed  for  a  length  of  time  by  the  gulls  of 
fanaticism  respecting  Voltaire,  D'Alembert,  and 
others,  until  the  Monthly  Review,  in  the  real 
spirit  of  philosophy,  dispelled  the  imposition, 
xviii 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

"The  late  'Life  of  Thomas  Paine'  by  Chee- 
tham  of  New  York,  gave  rise  to  the  above  mag- 
azine article.  Cheetham,  humph!  Now  should 
it  not  rather  be  spelled  Cheat'em,  as  applicable 
to  every  reader  of  that  farrago  of  imposition  and 
malignity,  miscalled  the  'Life  of  Paine'? 

"Probably  it  may  be  but  a  traveling  name  in 
order  to  set  another  book  a-traveling,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  scandalizing  and  maligning  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  defunct  public  man,  instead  of  the  far 
more  difficult  task  of  confuting  his  principles. 

"Nothing  can  be  more  in  course  than  this 
conjecture,  authorized  indeed  by  the  following 
fact,  with  which  I  believe  the  public  is,  to  this 
day,  unacquainted;  namely,  that  Mr.  Chalmers 
publicly  at  a  dinner  acknowledged  himself  the 
author  of  that  very  silly  and  insipid  catchpenny, 
formerly  sent  abroad  under  the  misnomer  of  a 
'Life  of  Thomas  Paine,  by  F.  Oldys,  of 
America.' 

"The  chief  view  of  this  application  is  to  ascer- 
tain whether  or  not  Mr.  Rickman  really  intends 
to  undertake  the  work  in  question. 

"I  am,  Sir,  etc.,  etc. 

"Politictjs." 


XIX 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

Universal  Magazine,,  December,  1811. 
"me.  clio  bickman's  reply  to  politicus 

"Sir:  If  you  had  done  me  the  favor  of  a  call, 
I  would  readily  have  satisfied  all  your  inquiries 
about  the  'Life  of  Mr.  Paine.' 

"It  is  true  I  had  the  memoirs  of  that  truly 
wise  and  good  man  in  a  great  state  of  forward- 
ness about  a  year  ago;  but  a  series  of  the  most 
severe  and  dreadful  family  distresses  since  that 
time  have  rendered  me  incapable  of  completing 
them. 

"Though  an  entire  stranger  to  me  (for  I 
have  not  the  least  idea  from  whom  the  letter  I 
am  replying  to  came),  I  feel  obliged  to  you  for 
the  liberal  opinion  therein  expressed  of  me  and 
of  my  fitness  for  the  work. 

"I  have  taken  great  pains  that  the  life  of  my 
friend  should  be  given  to  the  world  as  the  sub- 
ject merits;  and  a  few  weeks,  whenever  I  can  sit 
down  to  it,  will  complete  it. 

"Unhappily,  Cheetham  is  the  real  name  of  a 
real  apostate.  He  lived,  when  Mr.  Paine  was 
my  inmate  in  1792,  at  Manchester,  and  was  a 
violent  and  furious  idolater  of  his. 

"That  Mr.  Paine  died  in  the  full  conviction 
of  the  truth  of  the  principles  he  held  when  living 
xx 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

I  shall  fully  prove,  and  should  have  answered 
the  contemptible  trash  about  his  death,  so  indus- 
triously circulated,  but  that  the  whole  account 
exhibited  on  the  face  of  it  fanatical  fraud ;  and  it 
was  pushed  forward  in  a  mode  and  manner  so 
ridiculous  and  glaringly  absurd,  as  to  carry  with 
it  its  own  antidote. 

"Such  Christians  would  be  much  better  em- 
ployed in  mending  their  own  lives,  and  showing 
in  them  an  example  of  good  manners  and  morals, 
than  in  calumniating  the  characters  and  in  de- 
tailing silly  stories  of  the  deaths  of  those  Deists 
who  have  infinitely  outstripped  them,  in  their 
journey  through  life,  in  every  talent  and  virtue, 
and  in  diffusing  information  and  happiness 
among  their  fellowmen. 

"I  again  beg  the  favor  of  a  call,  as  the  cir- 
cumstances attached  to  the  query  of  yours,  and 
the  delays  and  hindrances,  which  are  of  a  family 
and  distressing  nature,  to  the  publication  of  Mr. 
Paine's  life,  are  better  adapted  for  private  than 
for  public  discussion. 

"I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"Clio  Hickman." 

It  may  not  be  necessary  for  me  to  promise 
anything  further  than  to  say,  that  I  affect  not 

xxi 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

to  rank  with  literary  men,  nor,  as  they  rise,  do  I 
wish  it;  that  authorship  is  neither  my  profession 
nor  pursuit;  and  that,  except  in  an  undeviating 
attention  to  truth,  and  a  better  acquaintance  with 
Mr.  Paine  and  his  life  than  any  other  man,  I  am 
perhaps  the  most  unfit  to  arrange  it  for  the  pub- 
lic eye. 

What  I  have  hitherto  written  and  published 
has  arisen  out  of  the  moment,  has  been  composed 
on  the  spur  of  the  occasion,  inspired  by  the 
scenery  and  circumstances  around  me,  and  pro- 
duced abroad  and  at  home,  amid  innumerable 
vicissitudes,  the  hurry  of  travel,  business,  pleas- 
ure, and  during  a  life  singularly  active,  eventful 
and  checkered. 

Latterly,  too,  that  life  has  been  begloomed 
by  a  train  of  ills  which  have  trodden  on  each 
other's  heel,  and  which,  added  to  the  loss  of  my 
inspirer,  my  guide,  my  genius,  and  my  muse;  of 
her,,  the  most  highly  qualified  and  best  able  to 
assist  me,  have  rendered  the  work  peculiarly  irk- 
some and  oppressive. 

In  the  year  1802,  on  my  journey  from 
France,  I  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  my  desk  of 
papers — a  loss  I  have  never  lamented  more  than 
on  the  present  occasion.  Among  these  were  Mr. 
Paine's  letters  to  me,  particularly  those  from 
xxii 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

France  in  the  most  interesting  years  to  Europe, 
1792,  1793.  Not  a  scrap  of  these,  together  with 
some  of  his  poetry,  could  I  ever  recover.  By 
this  misfortune  the  reader  will  lose  much  enter- 
taining and  valuable  matter. 

These  memoirs  [1819]  have  remained  un- 
touched from  1811  till  now,  and  have  not  received 
any  addition  of  biographical  matter  since.  They 
were  written  by  that  part  of  my  family  who  were 
at  hand,  as  I  dictated  them;  by  those  loved  be- 
ings of  whom  death  has  deprived  me,  and  from 
whom  other  severe  ills  have  separated  me.  The 
manuscript,  on  these  and  many  other  accounts, 
awakens  "busy  meddling  memory/'  and  tortures 
me  with  painful  remembrances ;  and  save  that  it 
is  a  duty  I  owe  to  the  public  and  to  the  memory 
and  character  of  a  valued  friend,  I  should  not 
have  set  about  its  arrangement. 

My  heart  is  not  in  it.  There  are  literary  pro- 
ductions, which,  like  some  children,  though  dis- 
agreeable to  everybody  else,  are  still  favorites 
with  the  parent:  this  offspring  of  mine  is  not  of 
this  sort,  it  hath  no  such  affection. 

Thus  surrounded,  and  every  way  broken  in 
upon  by  the  most  painful  and  harassing  circum- 
stances, I  claim  the  reader's  candor;  and  I  now 

xxiii 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

literally  force  myself  to  the  publication  of  Mr. 
Paine's  Life,  lest  it  should  again  be  improperly 
done,  or  not  be  done  at  all,  and  the  knowledge  of 
so  great  and  good  a  man  be  thereby  lost  to  the 
world. 

The  engraving  of  Mr.  Paine,  prefixed  to  this 
work,  is  the  only  true  likeness  of  him;  it  is  from 
his  portrait  by  Romney,  and  is  perhaps  the  great- 
est likeness  ever  taken  by  any  painter:  to  that 
eminent  artist  I  introduced  him  in  1792,  and  it 
was  by  my  earnest  persuasion  that  he  sat  to  him. 

Mr.  Paine  in  his  person  was  about  five  feet 
ten  inches  high ;  and  rather  athletic ;  he  was  broad- 
shouldered,  and  latterly  stooped  a  little. 

His  eye,  of  which  the  painter  could  not  con- 
vey the  exquisite  meaning,  was  full,  brilliant,  and 
singularly  piercing;  it  had  in  it  the  "muse  of  fire." 
In  his  dress  and  person  he  was  generally  very 
cleanly,  and  wore  his  hair  cued,  with  side  curls, 
and  powdered,  so  that  he  looked  altogether  like 
a  gentleman  of  the  old  French  school. 

His  manners  were  easy  and  gracious;  his 
knowledge  was  universal  and  boundless;  in  pri- 
vate company  and  among  friends  his  conversation 
had  every  fascination  that  anecdote,  novelty  and 
xxiv 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

truth  could  give  it.  In  mixed  company  and 
among  strangers  he  said  little,  and  was  no  public 
speaker. 

Thus  much  is  said  of  him  in  general,  and  in 
this  place,  that  the  reader  may  the  better  bear  us 
company  in  his  Life. 


XXV 


LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

By  Thomas  Clio  Rickman 

THE  following  memoirs  of  Mr.  Paine,  if 
they  have  no  other  merit,  at  least  have  that 
of  being  true. 

Europe  and  America  have  for  years  been  in 
possession  of  his  works:  these  form  the  most  im- 
portant part  of  his  life,  and  these  are  publicly 
sold  and  generally  read;  nor  will  the  spirit  of 
inquiry  and  sound  reasoning,  which  the  publica- 
tion of  them  is  so  well  calculated  to  promote,  be 
long  confined  to  any  part  of  the  world;  for,  to 
use  his  own  words,  "An  army  of  principles  will 
penetrate  where  an  army  of  soldiers  cannot.  It 
will  succeed  where  diplomatic  management  would 
fail.  It  is  neither  the  Rhine,  the  Channel,  nor 
the  Ocean,  that  can  arrest  its  progress.  It  will 
march  on  the  horizon  of  the  world,  and  it  will 
conquer." 

"What  manner  of  man"  Mr.  Paine  was,  his 
works  will  best  exhibit,  and  from  these  his  public, 
and  much  of  his  private  character,  will  be  best 
ascertained.  But,  as  solicitude  about  the  life 
of  a  great  man  and  an  extraordinary  writer  is 

1 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

common  to  all,  it  is  here  attempted  to  be  gratified. 

The  Life  of  Mr.  Paine  by  Francis  Oldys  was 
written  seventeen  years  before  Mr.  Paine's  death ; 
and  was  in  fact,  drawn  up  by  a  person  employed 
by  a  certain  lord,  and  who  was  to  have  five  hun- 
dred pounds  for  the  job,  if  he  calumniated  and 
belied  him  to  his  lordship's  and  the  Ministry's 
satisfaction. 

A  continuation  of  this  Life,  printed  at  Phil- 
adelphia in  1796,  is  in  the  same  strain  as  the 
above,  and  equally  contemptible. 

A  most  vile  and  scandalous  memoir  of  Paine, 
with  the  name  of  William  Cobbett  as  the  author, 
though  we  hope  he  was  not  so,  appeared  in  Lon- 
don about  the  year  1795  with  this  motto: 

A  life  that's  one  continued  scene 
Of  all  that's  infamous  and  mean. 

Mr.  James  Cheetham's  Life  of  Mr.  Paine, 
published  at  New  York  after  Mr.  Paine's  death 
in  1809,  is  a  farrago  of  still  more  silly,  trifling, 
false  and  malicious  matter.  It  is  an  outrageous 
attack  upon  Paine  which  bears  upon  the  face  of 
it,  idle  gossiping  and  gross  misrepresentation. 

The  critique  of  this  Life,  in  the  British  Re- 
view for  June,  1811,  consists  of  more  corrupt 
trash  about  Mr.  Paine  than  even  Cheetham's  book 
2 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

and  is  in  its  style  inflated  and  bombastic  to  a 
laughable  excess.  Whence  this  came,  and  for 
what  purpose  published,  the  candid  will  readily 
discern  and  cannot  but  lament  the  too  frequent 
abuse,  both  by  the  tongue  and  by  the  pen,  of  char- 
acters entirely  unknown  to  those  who  libel  them, 
and  by  whom,  if  they  were  known,  they  would 
be  approved  and  esteemed. 

Indeed  the  whole  of  these  works  are  so  ridicu- 
lously overstrained  in  their  abuse  that  they  carry 
their  own  antidote  with  them. 

The  Life  by  Cheetham  is  so  palpably  written 
to  distort,  disfigure,  mislead,  and  vilify,  and  does 
this  so  bunglingly,  that  it  defeats  its  own  pur- 
poses, and  becomes  entertaining  from  the  excess 
of  its  labored  and  studied  defamation. 

It  is  indeed  "guilt's  blunder,"  and  subverts  all 
it  was  intended  to  accomplish.  It  is  filled  with 
long  details  of  uninteresting  American  matter, 
bickering  letters  of  obscure  individuals,  gossiping 
stories  of  vulgar  fanatics,  prejudiced  political 
cant  and  weak  observations  on  theology. 

It  may  be  supposed,  from  my  long  and  affec- 
tionate intercourse  with  Mr.  Paine,  that  these 
memoirs  will  have  an  opposite  bias,  and  portray 
a  too  flattering  and  exalted  character  of  him. 
To  this  I  reply,  that  I  am  not  disposed  to 

3 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

advocate  the  errors  or  irregularities  of  any  man, 
however  intimate  with  him,  nor  to  suffer  the  par- 
tialities of  friendship  to  prevent  the  due  appreci- 
ation of  character,  or  induce  me  to  disregard  the 
hallowed  dictates  of  truth. 
Paine  was  of  those — 

Who,  wise  by  centuries  before  the  crowd, 
Must  by  their  novel  systems,  though  correct, 

Of  course  offend  the  wicked,  weak  and  proud — 
Must  meet  with  hatred,  calumny,  neglect. 

In  his  retirement  to  America,  toward  the  close 
of  his  life,  Mr.  Paine  was  particularly  unfortu- 
nate; for,  as  the  author  of  the  "Age  of  Reason," 
he  could  not  have  gone  to  so  unfavorable  a  quar- 
ter of  the  world. 

A  country  abounding  in  fanatics,  could  not 
be  a  proper  one  for  him  whose  mind  was  bold,  in- 
quiring, liberal  and  soaring,  free  from  prejudice, 
and  who  from  the  principle  was  a  Deist. 

Of  all  wrath,  fanatical  wrath  is  the  most  in- 
tense ;  nor  can  it  be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  Mr. 
Paine  received  from  great  numbers  in  America, 
an  unwelcome  reception,  and  was  treated  with 
neglect  and  illiberality. 

It  is  true  on  his  return  to  that  country  in  1802, 
he  received  great  attention  from  many  of  those 
who  remembered  the  mighty  influence  of  his 
4 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

writings  in  the  gloomy  period  of  the  Revolution ; 
and  from  others  who  had  since  embraced  his  prin- 
ciples; but  these  attentions  were  by  many  not 
long  continued. 

Thousands,  who  had  formerly  looked  up  to 
Mr.  Paine  as  the  principal  founder  of  the  Repub- 
lic, had  imbibed  a  strong  dislike  to  him  on  account 
of  his  religious  principles;  and  thousands  more, 
who  were  opposed  to  his  political  principles, 
seized  hold  of  the  mean  and  dastardly  expedient 
of  attacking  those  principles  through  the  relig- 
ious feelings  and  prejudices  of  the  people.  The 
vilest  calumnies  were  constantly  vented  against 
him  in  the  public  papers,  and  the  weak-minded 
were  afraid  to  encounter  the  popular  prejudice. 

The  letter  he  wrote  to  General  Washington 
also  estranged  him  from  many  of  his  old  friends, 
and  has  been  to  his  adversaries  a  fruitful  theme 
of  virulent  accusation,  and  a  foundation  on  which 
to  erect  a  charge  of  ingratitude  and  intemper- 
ance. It  must  certainly  be  confessed  that  his 
naturally  warm  feelings,  which  could  ill  brook 
any  slight,  particularly  where  he  was  conscious 
he  so  little  deserved  it,  appear  to  have  led  him 
to  form  a  somewhat  precipitate  judgment  of  the 
conduct  of  the  American  President,  with  regard 

5 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

to  his  (Mr.  Paine's)  imprisonment  in  France, 
and  to  attribute  to  design  and  wilful  neglect  what 
was  probably  only  the  result  of  inattention  or 
perhaps  of  misinformation;  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  this  incorrect  impression  he  seems  to  have 
indulged,  rather  too  hastily,  suspicions  of  Wash- 
ington's political  conduct  with  respect  to  Eng- 
land. 

But  surely  some  little  allowance  should  be 
made  for  the  circumstances  under  which  he  wrote ; 
just  escaped  from  the  horrors  of  a  prison  where 
he  had  been  for  several  months  confined  under 
the  sanguinary  reign  of  Robespierre,  when  death 
strode  incessantly  through  its  cells,  and  the  guil- 
lotine floated  in  the  blood  of  its  wretched  inhabi- 
tants ;  and  if,  with  the  recollection  of  these  scenes 
of  terror  fresh  in  his  memory,  and  impressed  with 
the  idea  that  it  was  by  Washington's  neglect 
that  his  life  had  been  thus  endangered,  he  may 
have  been  betrayed  into  a  style  of  severity  which 
was  perhaps  not  quite  warranted,  we  can  only  la- 
ment, without  attaching  blame  to  either,  that 
anything  jarring  should  have  occurred  between 
two  men  who  were  both  stanch  supporters  of  the 
cause  of  freedom,  and  thus  have  given  the  ene- 
mies of  liberty  occasion  to  triumph  because  its 
advocates  were  not  more  than  mortal. 
6 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

The  dark  and  troublous  years  of  the  Revo- 
lution having  passed  away,  and  a  government 
being  firmly  established,  wealth  possessed  more 
influence  than  patriotism;  and,  a  large  portion 
of  the  people  consisting  of  dissenters,  fanaticism 
was  more  predominant  than  toleration,  candor 
and  charity. 

These  causes  produced  the  shameful  and  un- 
grateful neglect  of  Mr.  Paine  in  the  evening  of 
his  days ;  of  that  Paine  who  by  his  long,  faithful, 
and  disinterested  services  in  the  Revolution,  and 
afterwards  by  inculcating  and  enforcing  correct 
principles,  deserved,  above  all  other  men,  the 
most  kind  and  unremitting  attention  from,  and 
to  be  held  in  the  highest  estimation  by,  the  Amer- 
ican people. 

There  were  indeed  a  chosen  and  enlightened 
few,  who,  like  himself  "bold  enough  to  be  honest 
and  honest  enough  to  be  bold,"  feeling  his  value, 
continued  to  be  his  friends  to  his  last  hour. 

Paine  was  not  one  of  the  great  men  who  live 
amid  great  events,  and  forward  and  share  their 
splendor;  he  created  them;  and,  in  this  point  of 
view,  he  was  a  very  superior  character  to  Wash- 
ington. 

Mr.  Paine  having  ever  in  his  mind  the  services 
he  had  rendered  the  United  States,  of  whose  in- 

7 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

dependence  he  was  the  principal  author  and 
means,  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  wonder  that  he 
was  deeply  hurt  and  affected  at  not  being  recog- 
nized and  treated  by  the  Americans  as  he  de- 
served, and  as  his  labors  for  their  benefit  merited. 

Shunned  where  he  ought  to  have  been 
caressed,  coldly  neglected  where  he  ought  to  have 
been  cherished,  thrown  into  the  background  where 
he  ought  to  have  been  prominent,  and  cruelly 
treated  and  calumniated  by  a  host  of  igno- 
rant and  canting  fanatics,  it  cannot  be  a  subject 
of  surprise,  though  it  certainly  must  of  regret, 
that  he  sometimes,  toward  the  close  of  his  life, 
fell  into  the  too  frequent  indulgence  of  stimu- 
lants, neglected  his  appearance,  and  retired,  mor- 
tified and  disgusted,  from  an  ill- judging,  unkind, 
unjust  world,  into  obscurity,  and  the  association 
of  characters  in  an  inferior  social  position. 

In  this  place  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
observe  that  during  his  residence  with  me  in  Lon- 
don, in  and  about  the  year  1792,  and  in  the  course 
of  his  life  previous  to  that  time,  he  was  not  in 
the  habit  of  drinking  to  excess;  he  was  clean  in 
his  person,  and  in  his  manners  polite  and  en- 
gaging; and  ten  years  after  this,  when  I  was  with 
him  in  France,  he  did  not  drink  spirits,  and  wine 
he  took  moderately;  he  even  objected  to  any 
8 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

spirits  being  laid  in  as  a  part  of  his  sea  stock, 
observing  to  me,  that  though  sometimes,  borne 
down  by  public  and  private  affliction,  he  had  been 
driven  to  excesses  in  Paris,  the  cause  and  effect 
would  cease  together,  and  that  in  America  he 
should  live  as  he  liked,  and  as  he  ought  to  live. 

That  Mr.  Paine  had  his  failings  is  as  true  as 
that  he  was  a  man,  and  that  some  of  them  grew 
on  him  at  a  very  advanced  time  of  life,  arising 
from  the  circumstances  before  detailed,  there  can 
be  no  doubt:  but  to  magnify  these,  to  give  him 
vices  he  had  not,  and  seek  only  occasions  of  mis- 
representing and  vilifying  his  character,  without 
bringing  forward  the  great  and  good  traits  in  it, 
is  cruel,  unkind,  and  unjust. 

"Let  those  who  stand  take  heed  lest  they 
fall."  They  too,  when  age  debilitates  the  body 
and  mind,  and  unexpected  trials  and  grievances 
assail  them,  may  fall  into  errors  that  they  now 
vauntingly  value  themselves  in  not  having.  Sin- 
gularly blest  are  they  who  are  correct  in  their 
conduct ;  they  should  be  happy  and  thankful  that 
they  are  so ;  and  instead  of  calumniating  and  be- 
ing hard  upon,  should  compassionate  those  who 
are  not. 

The  throwers  of  the  first  stone  would  indeed 
be  few  if  the  condition  were  complied  with  on 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

which  it  should  be  cast.  That  Mr.  Paine  in  his 
declining  years  became  careless  of  his  personal 
appearance,  and  maybe,  somewhat  parsimonious, 
is  in  some  measure  true;  but,  to  these  errors  of 
his  old  age,  we  ought  to  oppose  his  being  the  prin- 
cipal agent  in  creating  the  government  of  the 
American  States;  and  that  through  his  efforts 
millions  have  now  the  happiness  of  sitting  at  ease 
under  their  own  vines  and  their  own  fig  trees ;  his 
fair  and  upright  conduct  through  life,  his  honest 
perseverance  in  principles  which  he  might  have 
had  immense  sums  for  relinquishing,  or  for  being 
silent  about,  his  never  writing  for  money  or 
making  his  works  matter  of  pecuniary  advantage 
to  himself,  but,  on  the  contrary,  as  will  be  exem- 
plified in  these  memoirs,  his  firmness  in  resisting 
all  such  emolument  and  in  not  listening  to  the 
voice  of  the  briber. 

Even  amidst  the  violent  party  abuse  of  the 
day  there  were  contemporary  writers  who  knew 
how  to  appreciate  Mr.  Paine's  talents  and  prin- 
ciples, and  to  speak  of  him  as  he  deserved.* 

*There  were  also  public  meetings  held,  and  addresses  to  him 
from  Nottingham,  Norwich,  etc.,  etc.,  from  the  Constitutional 
Society  in  London,  to  which  belonged  persons  of  great  affluence 
and  influence,  and  some  of  the  best  informed,  best  intentioned, 
and  most  exalted  characters.  From  these  and  from  many  other 
bodies  of  men  were  published  the  highest  testimonies  of  thanks 

10 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

"We  are  now,"  says  one  of  these,  "to  treat  of 
a  real  great  man,  a  noble  of  nature,  one  whose 
mind  is  enlarged  and  wholly  free  from  prejudice; 
one  who  has  most  usefully  and  honorably  devoted 
his  pen  to  support  the  glorious  cause  of  general 
liberty  and  the  rights  of  man.  In  his  reply  to 
Mr.  Burke's  miserable  rhapsody  in  favor  of  op- 
pression, popery,  and  tyranny,  he  has  urged  the 
most  lucid  arguments,  and  brought  forward 
truths  the  most  convincing.  Like  a  powerful 
magician  he  touches  with  his  wand  the  hills  of 
error  and  they  smoke;  the  mountains  of  inhu- 
manity and  they  melt  away." 

"Had  Thomas  Paine,"  says  another  most  en- 
lightened writer  in  1795,  in  reply  to  Cheetham, 
Cobbett,  Oldys,  etc.,  "been  nothing  superior  to  a 
vagabond  seaman,  a  bankrupt  stay-maker,  a  dis- 
carded exciseman,  a  porter  in  the  streets  of  Phil- 
adelphia, or  whatever  else  the  insanity  of  Grub 
Street  chooses  to  call  him,  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  copies  of  his  writing  had  never  announced  his 
name  in  every  village  on  the  globe  where  the 
English  language  is  spoken,  and  very  extensively 
where  it  is  not ;  nor  would  the  rays  of  royal  indig- 

and  approbation  of  Mr.  Paine  and  his  political  works.  These 
addresses  and  the  resolutions  of  the  public  meetings  may  be  seen 
in  the  papers  and  hand  bills  of  the  day. 

11 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

nation  have  illuminated  that  character  which  they 
cannot  scorch." 

Even  Mr.  Burke,  writing  on  one  of  Mr. 
Paine's  works,  "Common  Sense,"  says,  "that 
celebrated  pamphlet,  which  prepared  the  minds 
of  the  people  for  independence." 

It  has  been  a  fashion  among  the  enemies  of 
Mr.  Paine,  when  unable  to  cope  with  his  argu- 
ments, to  attack  his  style,  which  they  charge  with 
inaccuracy  and  want  of  elegance ;  and  some,  even 
of  those  most  friendly  to  his  principles  have 
joined  in  this  captious  criticism.  It  had  not,  per- 
haps, all  the  meretricious  ornaments  and  studied 
graces  that  glitter  in  the  pages  of  Burke,  which 
would  have  been  so  many  obscurities  in  the  eyes 
of  that  part  of  the  community  for  whose  perusal 
his  writings  were  principally  intended,  but  it  is 
singularly  nervous  and  pointed;  his  arguments 
are  always  forcibly  stated,  nor  does  a  languid  line 
ever  weary  the  attention  of  the  reader.  It  is 
true,  he  never  studied  variety  of  phrase  at  the  ex- 
pense of  perspicuity.  His  object  was  to  en- 
lighten, not  to  dazzle;  and  often,  for  the  sake  of 
more  forcibly  impressing  an  idea  on  the  mind  of 
the  reader,  he  has  made  use  of  verbal  repetitions 
which  to  a  fastidious  ear  may  perhaps  sound  un- 
musical. But  although,  in  the  opinion  of  some, 
12 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

his  pages  may  be  deficient  in  elegance,  few  will 
deny  that  they  are  copious  in  matter ;  and,  if  they 
sometimes  fail  to  tickle  the  ear,  they  will  never 
fail  to  fill  the  mind. 

Distinctness  and  arrangement  are  the  peculiar 
characteristics  of  his  writings:  this  reflection 
brings  to  mind  an  observation  once  made  to  him 
by  an  American  girl,  "that  his  head  was  like  an 
orange — it  had  a  separate  apartment  for  every- 
thing it  contained." 

Notwithstanding  this  general  character  of  his 
writings,  the  bold  and  original  style  of  thinking 
which  everywhere  pervades  them  often  displays 
itself  in  a  luxuriance  of  imagery,  and  a  poetic 
elevation  of  fancy,  which  stand  unrivaled  in  the 
pages  of  our  English  classics. 

Thomas  Paine  was  born  at  Thetford  in  the 
County  of  Norfolk  in  England,  on  the  twenty- 
ninth  of  January,  1736.  His  father,  Joseph 
Paine,  who  was  the  son  of  a  reputable  farmer,  fol- 
lowed the  trade  of  a  stay-maker,  and  was  by 
religious  profession  a  Quaker.  His  mother's 
maiden  name  was  Frances  Cocke,  a  member  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  daughter  of  an  at- 
torney at  Thetford. 

They  were  married  at  the  parish  church  of 

13 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

Euston,  near  Thetford,  the  twentieth  of  June, 
1734. 

His  father,  by  this  marriage  out  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  Quakers,  was  disowned  by  that  community. 

Mr.  Paine  received  his  education  at  the  gram- 
mar school  at  Thetford,  under  the  Rev.  William 
Knowles,  master;  and  one  of  his  schoolmates  at 
that  time  was  the  late  Counsellor  Mingay. 

He  gave  very  early  indication  of  talents  and 
strong  abilities,  and  addicted  himself  when  a  mere 
boy,  to  reading  poetical  authors ;  but  this  disposi- 
tion his  parents  endeavored  to  discourage. 

When  a  child  he  composed  some  lines  on  a  fly 
being  caught  in  a  spider's  web,  and  produced 
when  eight  years  of  age,  the  following  epitaph  on 
a  crow  which  he  buried  in  the  garden : 

Here  lies  the  body  of  John  Crow, 
Who  once  was  high  but  now  is  low: 
Ye  brother  Crows  take  warning  all, 
For  as  you  rise,  so  must  you  fall. 

At  this  school  his  studies  were  directed  merely 
to  the  useful  branches  of  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic,  and  he  left  it  at  thirteen  years  of  age, 
applying,  though  he  did  not  like  it,  to  his  father's 
business  for  nearly  five  years. 

In  the  year  1756,  when  about  twenty  years  of 
age,  he  went  to  London,  where  he  worked  some 
14 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

time  in  Hanover  Street,  Long  Acre,  with  Mr. 
Morris,  a  noted  stay-maker. 

He  continued  but  a  short  time  in  London,  and 
it  is  probable  about  this  time  made  his  seafaring 
adventure  of  which  he  thus  speaks :  "At  an  early- 
age,  raw  and  adventurous,  and  heated  with  the 
false  heroism  of  a  master  [Rev.  Mr.  Knowles, 
master  of  the  grammar  school  at  Thetford]  who 
had  served  in  a  man-of-war,  I  began  my  fortune, 
and  entered  on  board  the  Terrible,  Captain 
Death.  From  this  adventure  I  was  happily  pre- 
vented by  the  affectionate  and  moral  remon- 
strances of  a  good  father,  who  from  the  habits  of 
his  life,  being  of  the  Quaker  profession,  looked 
on  me  as  lost;  but  the  impression,  much  as  it  af- 
fected me  at  the  time,  wore  away,  and  I  entered 
afterwards  in  the  King  of  Prussia  privateer, 
Captain  Mendez,  and  went  with  her  to  sea." 

This  way  of  life  Mr.  Paine  soon  left,  and 
about  the  year  1758,  worked  at  his  trade  for  near 
twelve  months  at  Dover.  In  April,  1759,  he  set- 
tled as  a  master  stay-maker  at  Sandwich ;  and  the 
twenty-seventh  of  September  following  married 
Mary  Lambert,  the  daughter  of  an  exciseman  of 
that  place.  In  April,  1760,  he  removed  with  his 
wife  to  Margate,  where  she  died  shortly  after, 
and  he  again  mingled  with  the  crowds  of  London. 

15 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

In  July,  1761,  disgusted  with  the  toil  and  lit- 
tle gain  of  his  late  occupation,  he  renounced  it  for 
ever,  and  determined  to  apply  himself  to  the  pro- 
fession of  an  exciseman,  toward  which,  as  his 
wife's  father  was  of  that  calling,  he  had  some  time 
turned  his  thoughts. 

At  this  period  he  sought  shelter  under  his 
father's  roof  at  Thetford,  that  he  might  prose- 
cute, in  quiet  and  retirement,  the  object  of  his 
future  course.  Through  the  interest  of  Mr. 
Cocksedge,  the  recorder  of  Thetford,  after  four- 
teen months  of  study,  he  was  established  as  a 
supernumerary  in  the  excise,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five. 

In  this  situation  at  Grantham  and  Alford, 
etc.,  he  did  not  continue  more  than  two  or  three 
years,  when  he  relinquished  it  in  August,  1765, 
and  commenced  it  again  in  July,  1766. 

In  this  interval  he  was  teacher  at  Mr.  Noble's 
academy  in  Leman  Street,  Goodman's  Fields,  at 
a  salary  of  twenty-five  pounds  a  year.  In  a  simi- 
lar occupation  he  afterwards  lived  for  a  short 
time,  at  Kensington,  with  a  Mr.  Gardner. 

I  remember  when  once  speaking  of  the  im- 
provement he  gained  in  the  above  capacities  and 
some  other  lowly  situations  he  had  been  in,  he 
made  this  observation.  "Here  I  derived  consid- 
16 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

erable  information;  indeed  I  have  seldom  passed 
five  minutes  of  my  life,  however  circumstanced, 
in  which  I  did  not  acquire  some  knowledge." 

During  this  residence  in  London,  Mr.  Paine 
attended  the  philosophical  lectures  of  Martin  and 
Ferguson,  and  became  acquainted  with  Dr.  Bevis 
of  the  Temple,  a  great  astronomer.  In  these 
studies  and  in  the  mathematics  he  soon  became  a 
proficient. 

In  March,  1768,  he  was  settled  as  an  excise- 
man at  Lewes,  in  Sussex,  and  there,  on  the  twen- 
ty-sixth of  March,  1771,  married  Elizabeth  Ol- 
live,  shortly  after  the  death  of  her  father,  whose 
trade  of  a  tobacconist  he  entered  into  and  carried 
on. 

In  this  place  he  lived  several  years  in  habits 
of  intimacy  with  a  very  respectable,  sensible,  and 
convivial  set  of  acquaintance,  who  were  enter- 
tained with  his  witty  sallies,  and  informed  by  his 
more  serious  conversations. 

In  politics  he  was  at  this  time  a  Whig,  and 
notorious  for  that  quality  which  has  been  defined 
perseverance  in  a  good  cause  and  obstinacy  in  a 
bad  one.  He  was  tenacious  of  his  opinions, 
which  were  bold,  acute,  and  independent,  and 
which  he  maintained  with  ardor,  elegance,  and 
argument. 

17 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

At  this  period,  at  Lewes,  the  White  Hart 
Evening  Club  was  the  resort  of  a  social  and  intel- 
ligent circle  who,  out  of  fun,  seeing  that  disputes 
often  ran  very  warm  and  high,  frequently  had 
what  they  called  the  "Headstrong  Book."  This 
was  no  other  than  an  old  Greek  Homer  which 
was  sent  the  morning  after  a  debate  vehemently 
maintained,  to  the  most  obstinate  haranguer  of 
the  club :  this  book  had  the  following  title,  as  im- 
plying that  Mr.  Paine  the  best  deserved  and  most 
frequently  obtained  it. 

THE 

HEADSTRONG  BOOK, 

OS 

ORIGINAL  BOOK  OF  OBSTINACY, 

WEITTEN    BY 

****  ****,  OF  LEWES,  IN  SUSSEX, 

AND  EEVISED  AND  CORRECTED  BY 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


Eulogy   on   Paine. 
Immortal  Paine,  while  mighty  reasoners  jar, 
We  crown  thee  General  of  the  Headstrong  War; 
Thy  logic  vanished  error,  and  thy  mind 
No  bounds,  but  those  of  right  and  truth,  confined. 
Thy  soul  of  fire  must  sure  ascend  the  sky, 
Immortal  Paine,  thy  fame  can  never  die; 
For  men  like  thee  their  names  must  ever  save 
From  the  black  edicts  of  the  tyrant  grave. 

18 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

My  friend  Mr.  Lee,  of  Lewes,  in  communi- 
cating this  to  me  in  September,  1810,  said: 
"This  was  manufactured  nearly  forty  years  ago, 
as  applicable  to  Mr.  Paine,  and  I  believe  you  will 
allow,  however  indifferent  the  manner,  that  I  did 
not  very  erroneously  anticipate  his  future 
celebrity." 

During  his  residence  at  Lewes,  he  wrote  sev- 
eral excellent  little  pieces  in  prose  and  verse,  and 
among  the  rest  the  celebrated  song  on  the  death 
of  General  Wolfe,  beginning 

In  a  mouldering  cave  where  the  wretched  retreat. 

It  was  about  this  time  he  wrote  "  The  Trial  of 
Farmer  Carter's  Dog  Porter,"  in  the  manner  of 
a  drama,  a  work  of  exquisite  wit  and  humor. 

In  1772  the  excise  officers  throughout  the 
kingdom  formed  a  design  of  applying  to  Parlia- 
ment for  some  addition  to  their  salaries.  Upon 
this  occasion  Mr.  Paine,  who,  by  this  time,  was 
distinguished  among  them  as  a  man  of  talent,  was 
fixed  upon  as  a  fit  person,  and  solicited  to  draw 
up  their  case,  and  this  he  did  in  a  very  succinct 
and  masterly  manner.  This  case  makes  an  oc- 
tavo pamphlet,  and  four  thousand  copies  were 
printed  by  Mr.  William  Lee,  of  Lewes.  It  is 
entitled  "The  Case  of  the  Salary  of  the  Officers 

19 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

of  Excise,  and  Thoughts  on  the  Corruption  Aris- 
ing from  the  Poverty  of  Excise  Officers."  No 
application,  however,  notwithstanding  this  effort, 
was  made  to  Parliament. 

In  April,  1774,  the  goods  of  his  shop  were 
sold  to  pay  his  debts.  As  a  grocer,  he  trafficked 
in  excisable  articles,  and  being  suspected  of  un- 
fair practises,  was  dismissed  the  excise  after  being 
in  it  twelve  years.  Whether  this  reason  was  a 
just  one  or  not  never  was  ascertained;  it  was, 
however,  the  ostensible  one.  Mr.  Paine  might 
perhaps  have  been  in  the  habit  of  smuggling,  in 
common  with  his  neighbors.  It  was  the  universal 
custom  along  the  coast,  and  more  or  less  the  prac- 
tise of  all  ranks  of  people,  from  lords  and  ladies, 
ministers  and  magistrates,  down  to  the  cottager 
and  laborer. 

As  Mr.  Paine's  being  dismissed  the  excise 
has  been  a  favorite  theme  with  his  abusers  it  may 
be  necessary  here  to  relate  the  following  fact: 

At  the  time  he  was  an  exciseman  at  Lewes, 
he  was  so  approved  for  doing  his  duty  that  Mr. 
Jenner,  principal  clerk  in  the  excise  office,  Lon- 
don, had  several  times  occasion  to  write  letters 
from  the  Board  of  Excise,  thanking  Mr.  Paine 
for  his  assiduity  in  his  profession,  and  for  his 
20 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

information  and  calculations  forwarded  to  the 
office. 

In  May  following  Mr.  Paine  and  his  wife 
separated  by  mutual  agreement,  articles  of  which 
were  finally  settled  on  the  fourth  of  June. 
Which  of  them  was  in  this  instance  wrong,  or 
whether  either  of  them  was  so,  must  be  left  unde- 
termined, as  on  this  subject  no  knowledge  or 
judgment  can  be  formed.  They  are  now  both 
removed,  where,  as  we  are  told,  none  "are  either 
married  or  given  in  marriage,"  and  where,  con- 
sequently, there  can  be  no  disagreements  on  this 
score.  This  I  can  assert,  that  Mr.  Paine  always 
spoke  tenderly  and  respectfully  of  his  wife,  and 
several  times  sent  her  pecuniary  aid,  without  her 
knowing  even  whence  it  came. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  1774,  he  was 
strongly  recommended  to  the  great  and  good  Dr. 
Franklin,  "the  favor  of  whose  friendship,"  he 
says,  "I  possessed  in  England  and  my  introduc- 
tion to  this  part  of  the  world  [America]  was 
through  his  patronage."* 

Mr.  Paine  now  formed  the  resolution  of  quit- 
ting his  native  country,  and  soon  crossed  the  At- 
lantic ;  and,  as  he  himself  relates,  arrived  in  Phil- 
adelphia in  the  winter,  a  few  months  before  the 

*Crisis,  No.  3. 

21 


WRITINGS    OF,   THOMAS    PAINE 

battle  of  Lexington,  which  was  fought  in  April, 

1775. 

It  appears  that  his  first  employment  in  the 

new  world  was  with  Mr.  Aitken,  a  book-seller,  as 

editor  of  the  Pennsylvanian  Magazine;  and  his 

introduction  to  that  work,  dated  January  24, 

1775,  is  thus  concluded:  "Thus  encompassed  with 

difficulties,  this  first  number  of  the  Pennsylvanian 

Magazine  entreats  a  favorable  reception,  of  which 

we  shall  only  say,  that  like  the  early  snow-drop 

it  comes  forth  in  a  barren  season,  and  contents 

itself  with  foretelling  the  reader  that  choicer 

flowers  are  preparing  to  appear." 

Soon  after  his  return  [sic]  to  America,  as 
foreign  supplies  of  gunpowder  were  stopped,  he 
turned  his  attention  to  chemistry,  and  set  his  fer- 
tile talents  to  work  in  endeavoring  to  discover 
some  cheap  and  expeditious  method  of  furnishing 
Congress  with  saltpeter,  and  he  proposed,  in  the 
Pennsylvanian  Journal,  November  2,  1775,  the 
plan  of  a  saltpeter  association  for  voluntarily 
supplying  the  national  magazines  with  gun- 
powder. 

His  popularity    in  America  now  increased 

daily,  and  from  this  era  he  became  a  great  public 

character  and  an  object  of  interest  and  attention 

in  the  world.     In  1776,  on  the  tenth  of  January, 

22 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

he  published  the  celebrated  and  powerfully  dis- 
criminating pamphlet,  "Common  Sense."  Per- 
haps the  greatest  compliment  that  can  be  paid  to 
this  work  is  the  effect  it  so  rapidly  had  on  the  peo- 
ple, who  had  before  no  predisposition  toward  its 
principles. 

Even  Mr.  Cheetham,  whom  no  one  will  sus- 
pect of  flattering  Mr.  Paine,  thus  forcibly  de- 
scribes the  effects  of  "Common  Sense"  on  the 
people  of  America: 

"This  pamphlet  of  forty  octavo  pages,  hold- 
ing out  relief  by  proposing  independence  to  an 
oppressed  and  despairing  people,  was  published 
in  January,  1776,  speaking  a  language  which  the 
colonists  had  felt,  but  not  thought  of.  Its  popu- 
larity, terrible  in  its  consequences  to  the  parent 
country,  was  unexampled  in  the  history  of  the 
press.  At  first  involving  the  colonists,  it  was 
thought,  in  the  crime  of  rebellion,  and  pointing  to 
a  road  leading  inevitably  to  ruin,  it  was  read  with 
indignation  and  alarm,  but  when  the  reader,  (and 
everybody  read  it),  recovering  from  the  first 
shock,  re-perused  it,  its  arguments  nourishing  his 
feelings,  and  appealing  to  his  pride,  reanimated 
his  hopes  and  satisfied  his  understanding,  that 
'Common  Sense,'  backed  up  by  the  resources  and 
force  of  the  colonies,  poor  and  feeble  as  they  were, 

23 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

could  alone  rescue  them  from  the  unqualified  op- 
pression with  which  they  were  threatened.  The 
unknown  author,  in  the  moments  of  enthusiasm 
which  succeeded,  was  an  angel  sent  from  heaven 
to  save  from  all  the  horrors  of  slavery  by  his 
timely,  powerful  and  unerring  councils,  a  faithful 
but  abused,  a  brave  but  misrepresented  people." 

"Common  Sense,"  it  appears,  was  universally 
read  and  approved;  the  first  edition  sold  almost 
immediately,  and  the  second  with  very  large  addi- 
tions was  before  the  public  soon  after. 

Owing  to  this  disinterested  conduct  of  Mr. 
Paine,  it  appears  that  though  the  sale  of  "Com- 
mon Sense"  was  so  great,  he  was  in  debt  to  the 
printer  £29  12*  Id.  This  liberality  and  con- 
scientious discharge  of  his  duty  with  respect  to 
his  serviceable  writings,  as  he  called  them,  he 
adopted  through  life.  "  When  I  bring  out  my 
poetical  and  anecdotical  works,"  he  would  often 
6ay  to  me,  "which  will  be  little  better  than  amus- 
ing, I  shall  sell  them ;  but  I  must  have  no  gain  in 
view,  must  make  no  traffic  of  my  political  and  the- 
ological writings.  They  are  with  me  a  matter  of 
principle  and  not  a  matter  of  money;  I  cannot 
desire  to  derive  benefit  from  them  or  make  them 
the  subject  to  attain  it." 
24 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

In  the  course  of  this  year,  1776,  Mr.  Paine  ac- 
companied the  army  with  General  Washington, 
and  was  with  him  in  his  retreat  from  the  Hudson 
River  to  the  Delaware.  At  this  period  our  au- 
thor stood  undismayed,  amid  a  flying  Congress, 
and  the  general  terror  of  the  land.  The  Ameri- 
cans, he  loudly  asserted,  were  in  possession  of 
resources  sufficient  to  authorize  hope,  and  he  la- 
bored to  inspire  others  with  the  same  sentiments 
which  animated  himself.  To  effect  this,  on  the 
nineteenth  of  December  he  published  "The  Cri- 
sis," wherein,  with  a  masterly  hand,  he  stated 
every  reason  for  hope,  and  examined  all  the  mo- 
tives for  apprehension.  This  work  he  continued 
at  various  intervals,  till  the  Revolution  was  es- 
tablished. The  last  number  appeared  on  the 
nineteenth  of  April,  1783,  the  same  day  a  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities  was  proclaimed. 

In  1777,  Congress  unanimously,  and  un- 
known to  Mr.  Paine,  appointed  him  Secretary  in 
the  Foreign  Department,  and  from  this  time  a 
close  friendship  continued  between  him  and  Dr. 
Franklin.  From  his  office  went  all  letters  that 
were  officially  written  by  Congress,  and  the  cor- 
respondence of  Congress  rested  afterwards  in 
his  hands.  This  appointment  gave  Mr.  Paine  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  into  foreign  courts,  and 

25 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

their  manner  of  doing  business  and  conducting 
themselves.  In  this  office,  which  obliged  him  to 
reside  with  Congress  wherever  it  fled,  or  however 
it  was  situated,  Mr.  Paine  deserved  the  highest 
praise  for  the  clearness,  firmness  and  magnani- 
mity of  his  conduct.  His  uprightness  and  entire 
fitness  for  this  office  did  not,  however,  prevent 
intrigue  and  interestedness,  or  defeat  cabal;  for 
a  difference  being  fomented  between  Congress 
and  him,  respecting  one  of  their  commissioners 
then  in  Europe  (Mr.  Silas  Deane),  he  resigned 
his  secretaryship  on  the  eighth  of  January,  1779, 
and  declined,  at  the  same  time,  the  pecuniary 
offers  made  him  by  the  ministers  of  France  and 
Spain,  M.  Gerard  and  Don  Juan  Mirralles. 

This  resignation  of,  or  dismissal  from  his  situ- 
ation as  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  has  been 
so  variously  mentioned  and  argued  upon,  that  the 
reader  is  referred  to  the  tedious  detail  of  it  in  the 
journals  of  the  day,  if  he  has  patience  to  wade 
through  so  much  American  temporary  and  party 
political  gossip.  Mr.  Paine's  own  account  in  his 
letter  to  Congress  shortly  is,  "  I  prevented 
Deane's  fraudulent  demand  being  paid,  and  so 
far  the  country  is  obliged  to  me,  but  I  became  the 
victim  of  my  integrity." 
26 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

The  party  junto  against  him  say  he  was 
guilty  of  a  violation  of  his  official  duty,  etc. 

And  here  I  shall  leave  it,  as  the  bickerings  of 
parties  in  America,  in  the  year  1779,  cannot  be 
worth  a  European's  attention;  and  as  to  the 
Americans  themselves  they  have  various  means, 
by  their  legislatural  records,  registers  of  the  day, 
and  pamphlets,  then  and  since,  to  go  into  the  sub- 
ject if  they  think  it  of  importance  enough. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Paine  had  the  degree  of 
Master  of  Arts  conferred  on  him  by  the  Univer- 
sity of  Philadelphia,  and  in  1780  was  chosen  a 
member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
when  it  was  revived  by  the  Legislature  of  the 
Province  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  February,  1781,  Colonel  Laurens,  amidst 
the  financial  distress  of  America,  was  sent  on  a 
mission  to  France  in  order  to  obtain  a  loan,  and 
Mr.  Paine,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  Colonel,  ac- 
companied him. 

Mr.  Paine,  in  his  letter  to  Congress,  intimates 
that  this  mission  originated  with  himself,  and 
takes  upon  himself  the  credit  of  it. 

They  arrived  in  France  the  following  month, 
obtained  a  loan  of  ten  millions  of  livres  and  a 
present  of  six  millions,  and  landed  in  America  the 
succeeding  August  with  two  millions  and  a  half 

27 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

in  silver.  His  value,  his  firmness,  his  independ- 
ence, as  a  political  character,  were  now  universal- 
ly acknowledged;  his  great  talents,  and  the  high 
purposes  to  which  he  devoted  them,  made  him 
generally  sought  after  and  looked  up  to,  and 
General  Washington  was  foremost  to  express  the 
great  sense  he  had  of  the  excellence  of  his  char- 
acter and  the  importance  of  his  services,  and 
would  himself  have  proposed  to  Congress  a  great 
remuneration  of  them,  had  not  Mr.  Paine  posi- 
tively objected  to  it  as  a  bad  precedent  and  an 
improper  mode. 

In  August,  1782,  he  published  his  spirited  let- 
ter to  the  Abbe  Raynal ;  of  this  letter  a  very  sen- 
sible writer  observes,  "that  it  displays  an  accuracy 
of  judgment  and  strength  of  penetration  that 
would  do  honor  to  the  most  enlightened  philoso- 
pher. It  exhibits  proofs  of  knowledge  so  com- 
prehensive, and  discrimination  so  acute,  as  must 
in  the  opinion  of  the  best  judges  place  the  author 
in  the  highest  ranks  of  literature." 

On  the  twenty-ninth  of  October  he  brought 
out  his  excellent  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Shelburne, 
on  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords,  July  10, 
1782. 

To  get  an  idea  of  the  speech  of  this  Earl  it 
may  not  be  necessary  to  quote  more  than  the  fol- 
28 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

lowing  sentence :  "When  Great  Britain  acknowl- 
edges American  independence  the  sun  of  Britain's 
glory  is  set  forever." 

"  When  the  war  ended,"  says  Mr.  Paine,  "  I 
went  from  Philadelphia  to  Borden  Town  on  the 
East  end  of  the  Delaware,  where  I  have  a  small 
place.  Congress  was  at  this  time  at  Prince 
Town,  fifteen  miles  distant,  and  General  Wash- 
ington had  taken  his  headquarters  at  Rocky  Hill, 
within  the  neighborhood  of  Congress,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  resigning  his  commission,  the  object  for 
which  he  had  accepted  it  being  accomplished,  and 
of  retiring  to  private  life.  While  he  was  on  this 
business  he  wrote  me  the  letter  which  I  here 
subjoin:" 

"Rocky  Hill,  September  10,  1783. 

"I  have  learned  since  I  have  been  at  this  place 
that  you  are  at  Borden  Town.  Whether  for  the 
sake  of  retirement  or  economy  I  know  not;  be  it 
for  either,  for  both,  or  whatever  it  may,  if  you  will 
come  to  this  place  and  partake  with  me,  I  shall 
be  exceedingly  happy  to  see  you  at  it.  Your 
presence  may  remind  Congress  of  your  past  ser- 
vices to  this  country,  and  if  it  is  in  my  power  to 
impress  them,  command  my  best  services  with 
freedom;  as  they  will  be  rendered  cheerfully  by 

29 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

one  who  entertains  a  lively  sense  of  the  impor- 
tance of  your  works,  and  who  with  much  pleasure, 
subscribes  himself, 

"Your  sincere  friend, 

"G.  Washington/' 

In  1785,  Congress  granted  Mr.  Paine  three 
thousand  dollars  for  his  services  to  the  people  of 
America,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  following  docu- 
ment : 

"Friday,  August  26, 1785. 

"On  the  report  of  a  committee  consisting  of 
Mr.  Gerry,  Mr.  Petet  and  Mr.  King,  to  whom 
was  referred  a  letter  of  the  thirteenth  from 
Thomas  Paine, 

"Resolved,  That  the  early,  unsolicited,  and 
continued  labors  of  Mr.  Thomas  Paine,  in  ex- 
plaining the  principles  of  the  late  Revolution,  by 
ingenious  and  timely  publications  upon  the  na- 
ture of  liberty  and  civil  government,  have  been 
well  received  by  the  citizens  of  these  states,  and 
merit  the  approbation  of  Congress;  and  that  in 
consideration  of  these  services,  and  the  benefits 
produced  thereby,  Mr.  Paine  is  entitled  to  a  lib- 
eral gratification  from  the  United  States." 


30 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

"Monday,  October  3,  1785. 

"  On  a  report  of  a  committee  consisting  of 
Mr.  Gerry,  Mr.  Howell  and  Mr.  Long,  to  whom 
were  referred  sundry  letters  from  Mr.  Thomas 
Paine,  and  a  report  on  his  letter  of  the  fourteenth 
of  September, 

"Resolved,  That  the  Board  of  Treasury  take 
order  for  paying  to  Mr.  Thomas  Paine,  the  sum 
of  three  thousand  dollars,  for  the  considerations 
of  the  twenty-third  of  August  last." — Journals 
of  Congress. 

The  State  of  Pennsylvania,  in  which  he  first 
published  "Common  Sense"  and  the  "Crisis,"  in 
1785,  presented  him,  by  an  act  of  Legislature, 
five  hundred  pounds  currency.  New  York  gave 
him  the  estate  at  New  Rochelle,  in  the  county  of 
Westchester,  consisting  of  more  than  three  hun- 
dred acres  of  land  in  high  cultivation.  On  this 
estate  was  an  elegant  stone  house,  125  by  28  feet, 
besides  outhouses ;  the  latter  property  was  farmed 
much  to  his  advantage,  during  his  long  stay  in 
Europe,  by  some  friends,  as  will  hereafter  be 
more  fully  noticed. 

Mr.  Monroe,  when  Ambassador  in  England, 
once  speaking  on  this  subject  at  my  house,  said 
that  Mr.  Paine  would  have  received  a  very  large 

31 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

remuneration  from  the  State  of  Virginia,  but 
that  while  the  matter  was  before  the  Assembly, 
and  he  was  extremely  popular  and  in  high  favor, 
he  published  reasons  against  some  proceedings  of 
that  State  which  he  thought  improper,  and  there- 
by lost,  by  a  majority  of  one,  the  high  reward  he 
would  otherwise  have  received;* — a  memorable 
instance  of  the  independence  of  his  mind,  and  of 
his  attachment  to  truth  and  right  above  all  other 
considerations.  A  conduct  exactly  opposite  to 
that  of  the  pensioned  Burke,  whose  venality  can- 
not be  better  pointed  out  than  in  the  following 
conversation  with  Mr.  Paine,  after  dining  to- 
gether at  the  Duke  of  Portland's  at  Bulstrode. 

Burke  was  very  inquisitive  to  know  how  the 
Americans  were  disposed  toward  the  King  of 
England,  when  Mr.  Paine,  to  whom  the  subject 
was  an  ungracious  one,  and  who  felt  teased,  re- 
lated the  following  anecdote : 

At  a  small  town,  in  which  was  a  tavern  bear- 
ing the  sign  of  the  King's  head,  it  was  insisted  on 
by  the  inhabitants  that  a  memento  so  odious 
should  not  continue  up,  but  there  was  no  painter 
at  hand  to  change  it  into  General  Washington,  or 

*This  work  was  entitled  "Public  Good,  being  an  Examination 
of  the  Claim  of  Virginia  to  Vacant  Western  Territory." 

32 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

any  other  favorite,  so  the  sign  was  suffered  to  re- 
main, with  this  inscription  under  it: 

This  is  the  sign  of  the  Loggerhead ! 

Burke,  who  at  this  moment  was  a  concealed 
pensioner,  though  a  public  oppositionist,  replied, 
peevishly:  "Loggerhead  or  any  other  head,  he 
has  many  good  things  to  give  away,  and  I  should 
be  glad  of  some  of  them." 

This  same  Mr.  Burke,  in  one  of  his  speeches  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  said,  "kings  were  natur- 
ally fond  of  low  company,"  and  "that  many  of 
the  nobility  act  the  part  of  flatterers,  parasites, 
pimps  and  buffoons,  etc.,"  but  his  character  will 
be  best  appreciated  by  reading  Mr.  Paine's  "Let- 
ter to  the  Addressers." 

In  1786  he  published  in  Philadelphia  "Dis- 
sertation on  Government,  the  Affairs  of  the 
Bank,  and  Paper  Money,"  an  octavo  pamphlet 
of  sixty-four  pages.  The  bank  alluded  to  is  the 
Bank  of  North  America,  of  which  he  thus  speaks : 

"In  the  year  1780,  when  the  British  Army, 
having  laid  waste  the  Southern  States,  closed  its 
ravages  by  the  capture  of  Charleston,  when  the 
financial  sources  of  Congress  were  dried  up, 
when  the  public  treasury  was  empty,  and  the 
army  of  independence  paralyzed  by  want,  a  vol- 

33 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

untary  subscription  for  its  relief  was  raised  in 
Philadelphia."  This  voluntary  fund,  amounting 
to  three  hundred  thousand  pounds,  afterwards 
converted  into  a  bank  by  the  subscribers,  headed 
by  Robert  Morris,  supplied  the  wants  of  the 
army;  probably  the  aids  which  it  furnished  en- 
abled Washington  to  carry  into  execution  his 
well-concerted  plan  against  Cornwallis.  Con- 
gress, in  the  year  1781,  incorporated  the  sub- 
scribers to  the  fund,  under  the  title  of  the  Bank 
of  North  America.  In  the  following  year  it 
was  further  incorporated  by  an  Act  of  the  Penn- 
sylvanian  Assembly.  Mr.  Paine  liberally  sub- 
scribed five  hundred  dollars  to  this  fund. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  independence 
of  America,  of  the  vigorous  and  successful  exer- 
tions to  attain  which  glorious  object  he  had  been 
the  animating  principle,  soul  and  support;  feel- 
ing his  exertions  no  longer  requisite  in  that  coun- 
try, he  embarked  for  France,  and  arrived  in 
Paris  early  in  1787,  carrying  with  him  his  fame 
as  a  literary  man,  an  acute  philosopher,  and  most 
profound  politician. 

At  this  time  he  presented  to  the  Academy 
of  Science  the  model  of  a  bridge  which  he  in- 
vented, the  principle  of  which  has  been  since  so 
highly  celebrated  and  approved. 
34 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

From  Paris  he  arrived  in  England  the  third 
of  September,  just  thirteen  years  after  his  de- 
parture for  Philadelphia.  Prompted  by  that 
filial  affection  which  his  conduct  had  ever  mani- 
fested, he  hastened  to  Thetford  to  visit  his 
mother,  on  whom  he  settled  an  allowance  of  nine 
shillings  a  week.  Of  this  comfortable  solace  she 
was  afterwards  deprived  by  the  bankruptcy  of 
the  merchant  in  whom  the  trust  was  vested. 

Mr.  Paine  resided  at  Rotherham  in  Yorkshire 
during  part  of  the  year  1788,  where  an  iron 
bridge  upon  the  principle  alluded  to  was  cast  and 
erected,  and  obtained  for  him  among  the  mathe- 
maticians of  Europe  a  high  reputation.  In  the 
erection  of  this,  a  considerable  sum  had  been  ex- 
pended, for  which  he  was  hastily  arrested  by  the 
assignees  of  an  American  merchant,  and  thrown 
into  confinement.  From  this,  however,  and  the 
debt,  he  cleared  himself  in  about  three  weeks.* 

The  publication  of  Mr.  Burke's  "Reflections 
on  the  French  Revolution,"  produced  in  reply 
from  Mr.  Paine  his  great,  universally  known,  and 
celebrated  work,  "Rights  of  Man."  The  first 
part  of  this  work  was  written  partly  at  the  Angel, 
of  Islington,  partly  in  Harding  Street,  Fetter 

*More  or  less  upon  this  plan  of  Mr.  Paine's,  the  different  iron 
bridges  in  Europe  have  been  constructed. 

35 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

Lane,  and  finished  at  Versailles.  In  February, 
1791,  this  book  made  its  appearance  in  London, 
and  many  hundred  thousand  copies  were  rapidly 
sold.  In  May  following  he  went  again  to  France 
and  was  at  Paris  at  the  time  of  the  flight  of  the 
King,  and  also  on  his  return.  On  this  memorable 
occasion  he  made  this  observation:  "You  see  the 
absurdity  of  your  system  of  government;  here 
will  be  a  whole  nation  disturbed  by  the  folly  of 
one  man."  Upon  this  subject  also  he  made  the 
following  reply  to  the  Marquis  Lafayette,  who 
came  into  his  bedroom  before  he  was  up,  saying, 
"The  birds  are  flown."  "  'Tis  well;  I  hope  there 
will  be  no  attempt  to  recall  them." 

On  the  thirteenth  of  July  he  returned  to  Lon- 
don, but  did  not  attend  the  celebration  of  the 
anniversary  of  the  French  Revolution  the  follow- 
ing day,  as  has  been  falsely  asserted. 

On  the  twentieth  of  August  he  drew  up  the 
address  and  declaration  of  the  gentlemen  who  met 
at  the  Thatched  House  Tavern. 

The  language  of  this  address  is  bold  and  free, 
but  not  more  so  than  that  of  the  late  Lord  Chat- 
ham, or  of  that  once  violent  advocate  of  reform, 
the  late  Mr.  Pitt,  better  known  by  the  title  of  the 
"Enemy  of  the  Human  Race." 

On  the  subject  of  the  address  at  the  Thatched 
36 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

House  Tavern,  which  Mr.  Paine  did  write,  it  is 
impossible  not  to  quote  Cheetham's  "Life,"  just 
to  exhibit  his  blindness  and  ignorance,  and  to 
show  how  prejudice  had  warped  this  once  idolizer 
of  Mr.  Paine:  "Home  Tooke,  perhaps  the  most 
acute  man  of  his  age,  was  at  this  meeting;  and 
as  it  was  rumored,  Paine  observes,  that  the  great 
grammarian  was  the  author  of  the  address,  he 
takes  the  liberty  of  mentioning  the  fact,  that  he 
wrote  it  himself.  I  never  heard  of  the  rumor, 
which  was  doubtless  a  fiction  formed  and  asser- 
ted by  Paine  merely  to  gratify  his  egotism.  No 
one  could  mistake  the  uncouth  and  ungrammat- 
ical  writings  of  one,  for  the  correct  and  elegant 
productions  of  the  other."  But  what  can  be 
expected  from  him  who  calls  "Common  Sense" 
a  wretched  work;  the  "Rights  of  Man"  a  mis- 
erable production;  and  "Burke's  Reflections"  a 
book  of  the  proudest  sagacity? 

What  can  be  expected  from  him  who  a  few 
years  before  writing  the  above,  in  England  dei- 
fied Mr.  Paine,  and  called  his  writings  immortal  ? 

Mr.  Paine's  life  in  London  was  a  quiet 
round  of  philosophical  leisure  and  enjoyment.  It 
was  occupied  in  writing,  in  a  small  epistolary 
correspondence,  in  walking  about  with  me  to 
visit  different  friends,  occasionally  lounging  at 

37 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

coffee-houses  and  public  places,  or  being  visited 
by  a  select  few.  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  the 
French  and  American  ambassadors,  Mr.  Sharp 
the  engraver,  Romney  the  painter,  Mrs.  Woll- 
stonecraft,  Joel  Barlow,  Mr.  Hull,  Mr.  Chris- 
tie, Dr.  Priestley,  Dr.  Towers,  Colonel  Oswald, 
the  walking  Stewart,  Captain  Sampson  Perry, 
Mr.  Tuffin,  Mr.  William  Choppin,  Captain  De 
Stark,  Mr.  Home  Tooke,  etc.,  etc.,  were  among 
the  number  of  his  friends  and  acquaintance ;  and 
of  course,  as  he  was  my  inmate,  the  most  of  my 
associates  were  frequently  his. 

At  this  time  he  read  but  little,  took  his  nap 
after  dinner,  and  played  with  my  family  at  some 
game  in  the  evening,  as  chess,  dominos,  and 
drafts,  but  never  at  cards ;  in  recitations,  singing, 
music,  etc.,  or  passed  it  in  conversation;  the  part 
he  took  in  the  latter  was  always  enlightened,  full 
of  information,  entertainment  and  anecdote. 
Occasionally  we  visited  enlightened  friends,  in- 
dulged in  domestic  jaunts,  and  recreations  from 
home,  frequently  lounging  at  the  White  Bear, 
Piccadilly,  with  his  old  friend,  the  walking  Stew- 
art, and  other  clever  travelers  from  France,  and 
different  parts  of  Europe  and  America. 

When  by  ourselves  we  sat  very  late,  and  often 
broke  in  on  the  morning  hours,  indulging  the  re- 
88 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

ciprocal  interchange  of  affectionate  and  confiden- 
tial intercourse.  "Warm  from  the  heart  and 
faithful  to  its  fires,"  was  that  intercourse,  and 
gave  to  us  the  "feast  of  reason  and  the  flow  of 
soul." 

The  second  part  of  "Rights  of  Man,"  which 
completed  the  celebrity  of  its  author,  and  placed 
him  at  the  head  of  political  writers,  was  published 
in  February,  1792.  Never  had  any  work  so  rap- 
id and  extensive  a  sale ;  and  it  has  been  calculated 
that  near  a  million  and  a  half  of  copies  were 
printed  and  published  in  England. 

From  this  time  Mr.  Paine  generally  resided 
in  London,  and  principally  with  me,  till  the 
twelfth  of  September,  1792,  when  he  sailed  for 
France  with  Mr.  Achilles  Audibert,  who  came 
express  from  the  French  Convention  to  my  house 
to  request  his  personal  assistance  in  their  delib- 
erations. 

On  his  arrival  at  Calais  a  public  dinner  was 
provided,  a  royal  salute  was  fired  from  the  bat- 
tery, the  troops  were  drawn  out,  and  there  was 
a  general  rejoicing  throughout  the  town.  He 
has  often  been  heard  to  remark  that  the  proudest 
moment  of  his  life  was  that  in  which,  on  this  oc- 
casion, he  set  foot  upon  the  Gallic  shore. 

In  his  own  country  he  had  been  infamously 

39 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

treated,  and  at  the  time  of  his  quitting  Dover 
most  rudely  dealt  with  both  by  the  officers  who 
ransacked  his  trunks,  and  a  set  of  hirelings  who 
were  employed  to  hiss,  hoot  and  maltreat,  and  it 
is  strongly  suspected,  to  destroy  him. 

It  depressed  him  to  think  that  his  endeavors 
to  cleanse  the  Augaean  stable  of  corruption  in 
England  should  have  been  so  little  understood, 
or  so  ill  appreciated  as  to  subject  him  to  such 
ignominious,  such  cowardly  treatment.  Yet 
seven  hours  after  this,  those  very  endeavors  ob- 
tained him  an  honorable  reception  in  France,  and 
on  his  landing  he  was  respectfully  escorted, 
amidst  the  loud  plaudits  of  the  multitude,  to  the 
house  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Audibert,  the  chief  mag- 
istrate of  the  place,  where  he  was  visited  by  the 
commandant  and  all  the  municipal  officers  in 
form,  who  afterwards  gave  him  a  sumptuous  en- 
tertainment in  the  town  hall. 

The  same  honor  was  also  paid  him  on  his 
departure  for  Paris.* 

About  the  time  of  his  arrival  at  Paris  the 
National  Convention  began  to  divide  itself  into 

*The  reader  is  referred  to  Brissot's  paper,  Le  Patriot  Frangois, 
and  Le  Journal  de  Gorsas,  for  minute  particulars  of  Mr.  Paine's 
introduction  to  the  president  of  the  Convention,  to  the  ministers 
and  different  committees;  his  being  appointed  a  deputy,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  of  constitution,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

40 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

factions ;  the  King's  friends  had  been  completely 
subdued  by  the  suppression  of  the  Feuillans,  the 
affair  of  the  tenth  of  August,  and  the  massacre 
of  the  second  and  third  of  September;  while  the 
Jacobins,  who  had  been  hitherto  considered  as 
the  patriotic  party,  became  in  their  turns  divided 
into  different  cabals,  some  of  them  wishing  a 
federative  government,  others,  the  enragbs,  de- 
siring the  death  of  the  King,  and  of  all  allied  to 
the  nobility;  but  none  of  those  were  republicans. 

Those  few  deputies  who  had  just  ideas  of  a 
commonwealth,  and  whose  leader  was  Paine,  did 
not  belong  to  the  Jacobin  Club. 

I  mention  this,  because  Mr.  Paine  took  in- 
finite trouble  to  instil  into  their  minds  the  dif- 
ference between  liberty  and  licentiousness,  and 
the  danger  to  the  peace,  good  order,  and  well- 
doing of  society,  that  must  arise  from  letting  the 
latter  encroach  upon  the  prerogatives  of  the 
former. 

He  labored  incessantly  to  preserve  the  life 
of  the  King,  and  he  succeeded  in  making  some 
converts  to  his  opinions  on  this  subject;  and  his 
life  would  have  been  saved  but  for  Barrere,  who, 
having  been  appointed  by  Robespierre  to  an 
office  he  was  ambitious  of  obtaining,  and  certainly 
very  fit  for,  his  influence  brought  with  it  forty 
i-.  41 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

votes;  so  early  was  corruption  introduced  into 
this  assembly.  For  Calais,  Mr.  Paine  was  re- 
turned deputy  to  the  Convention ;  he  was  elected 
as  well  for  Versailles,  but  as  the  former  town  first 
did  him  the  honor  he  became  its  representative. 
He  was  extremely  desirous  and  expected  to  be 
appointed  one  of  the  deputies  to  Holland ;  a  cir- 
cumstance that  probably  would  have  taken  place 
had  not  the  Committee  of  Constitution  delayed  so 
long  the  production  of  the  new  form  that  the  Ja- 
cobins anticipated  them,  and  published  proposals 
for  a  new  constitution  before  the  committee. 

This  delay  was  owing  to  the  jealousy  of  Con- 
dorcet,  who  had  written  the  preface,  part  of 
which  some  of  the  members  thought  should  have 
been  in  the  body  of  the  work.  Brissot  and  the 
whole  party  of  the  Girondites  lost  ground  daily 
after  this ;  and  with  them  died  away  all  that  was 
national,  just  and  humane:  they  were,  however, 
highly  to  blame  for  their  want  of  energy. 

In  the  beginning  of  April,  1793,  the  Conven- 
tion received  the  letter  from  Dumourier  that  put 
all  France  in  a  panic :  in  this  letter  he  mentioned 
the  confidence  the  army  had  in  him,  and  his  in- 
tention of  marching  to  Paris  to  restore  to  France 
her  constitutional  King:  this  had  the  strongest 
effect,  as  it  was  accompanied  by  an  address  from 
4,2 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

the  Prince  of  Coburg,  in  which  he  agreed  to  co- 
operate with  Dumourier. 

Mr.  Paine,  who  never  considered  the  vast  dif- 
ference between  the  circumstances  of  the  two 
countries,  France  and  America,  suggested  an  idea 
that  Dumourier  might  be  brought  about  by  ap- 
pointing certain  deputies  to  wait  on  him  coolly 
and  dispassionately,  to  hear  his  grievances,  and 
armed  with  powers  to  redress  them. 

On  this  subject  he  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
Convention,  in  which  he  instanced  the  case  of  an 
American  general  who  receded  with  the  army 
under  his  command  in  consequence  of  his  being 
dissatisfied  with  the  proceedings  of  Congress. 
The  Congress  were  panic-struck  by  this  event, 
and  gave  up  all  for  lost;  and  when  the  first  im- 
pression of  alarm  subsided  they  sent  a  deputation 
from  their  own  body  to  the  general,  who  with  his 
staff  gave  them  the  meeting;  and  thus  matters 
were  again  reinstated.  But  there  was  too  much 
impetuosity  and  faction  in  the  French  Conven- 
tion to  admit  of  such  temperate  proceedings. 

Mr.  Paine,  however,  had  written  the  letter, 
and  was  going  to  Brissot's  in  order  to  meet  Bar- 
rere  for  the  purpose  of  proposing  an  adjustment, 
when  he  met  a  friend  who  had  that  moment  left 
the  Convention,  who  informed  him  that  a  decree 

43 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

had  been  passed  offering  one  hundred  thousand 
crowns  for  Dumourier's  head,  and  another  mak- 
ing it  high  treason  to  propose  anything  in  his 
favor. 

What  the  consequence  of  Mr.  Paine's  project 
might  have  been  I  do  not  know,  but  the  offer  of 
the  Convention  made  hundreds  of  desperate  char- 
acters leave  Paris  as  speedily  as  possible,  in  hopes 
of  the  proffered  reward ;  it  detached  the  affection 
of  the  soldiers  from  their  general,  and  made  them 
go  over  to  the  enemy. 

Toward  the  close  of  1792  his  "Letter  to  the 
Addressers"  was  published,  which  was  sought 
after  with  the  same  avidity  as  his  other  produc- 
tions. 

Of  this  letter,  which,  with  many  other  things, 
he  wrote  at  my  house,  I  have  the  original  manu- 
script, and  the  table  on  which  they  were  written 
is  still  carefully  preserved  by  me.  It  has  a  brass 
plate  in  the  center  with  this  inscription,  placed 
there  by  my  direction  on  his  quitting  England : 

"This  Plate  is  inscribed 

by  Thomas  Clio  Rickman, 

in  remembrance  of  his  dear  friend, 

THOMAS   PAINE, 

who  on  this  Table  in  the  Year  1792, 
wrote  several  of  his  invaluable 
Works." 

44 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

The  "Letter  to  the  Addressers"  possesses  all 
Mr.  Paine's  usual  strength  of  reasoning,  and 
abounds  also  in  the  finest  strokes  of  genuine  sat- 
ire, wit  and  humor.  About  this  time  a  prosecu- 
tion took  place  against  the  publishers  of  "Rights 
of  Man." 

As  the  Proclamation  which  gave  rise  to  the 
"Letter  to  the  Addressers"  is  a  curious  document, 
and  evinces  the  temper  of  the  powers  that  were 
of  that  day,  it  is  for  the  entertainment  of  the 
reader  here  inserted: 

"The  London  Gazette,  published  by  au- 
thority, from  Saturday,  May  nineteenth,  to  Tues- 
day, May  twenty-second. 

"By  the  King,  a  Proclamation. 
"George  R. 

"Whereas,  Divers  wicked  and  seditious  wri- 
tings have  been  printed,  published,  and  industri- 
ously dispersed,  tending  to  excite  tumult  and 
disorder,  by  endeavoring  to  raise  groundless 
jealousies  and  discontents  in  the  minds  of  our 
faithful  and  loving  subjects  respecting  the  laws 
and  happy  constitution  of  government,  civil  and 
religious,  established  in  this  kingdom,  and  en- 
deavoring to  vilify,  and  bring  into  contempt,  the 
wise  and  wholesome  provisions  made  at  the  time 
of  the  glorious  Revolution,  and  since  strength- 

45 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

ened  and  confirmed  by  subsequent  laws  for  the 
preservation  and  security  of  the  rights  and  liber- 
ties of  our  faithful  and  loving  subjects:  and 
whereas  divers  writings  have  also  been  printed, 
published,  and  industriously  dispersed,  recom- 
mending the  said  wicked  and  seditious  publica- 
tions to  the  attention  of  all  our  faithful  and  lov- 
ing subjects: 

"And  whereas  we  have  also  reason  to  believe 
that  correspondencies  have  been  entered  into  with 
sundry  persons  in  foreign  parts  with  a  view  to 
forward  the  criminal  and  wicked  purposes  above 
mentioned:  and  whereas  the  wealth,  happiness 
and  prosperity  of  this  kingdom  do,  under  Divine 
Providence,  chiefly  depend  upon  a  due  submission 
to  the  laws,  a  just  confidence  in  the  integrity  and 
wisdom  of  Parliament,  and  a  continuance  of  that 
zealous  attachment  to  that  government  and  con- 
stitution of  the  kingdom  which  has  ever  prevailed 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  thereof:  and  whereas 
there  is  nothing  which  we  so  earnestly  desire  as 
to  secure  the  public  peace  and  prosperity,  and  to 
preserve  to  all  our  loving  subjects  the  full  enjoy- 
ment of  their  rights  and  liberties,  both  religious 
and  civil: 

"We,  therefore,  being  resolved,  as  far  as  in  us 
lies,  to  repress  the  wicked  and  seditious  practises 
46 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

aforesaid,  and  to  deter  all  persons  from  following 
so  pernicious  an  example,  have  thought  fit,  by 
the  advice  of  our  Privy  Council,  to  issue  this  our 
Royal  Proclamation,  solemnly  warning  all  our 
loving  subjects,  as  they  tender  their  own  happi- 
ness, and  that  of  their  posterity,  to  guard  against 
all  such  attempts,  which  aim  at  the  subversion  of 
all  regular  government  within  this  kingdom,  and 
which  are  inconsistent  with  the  peace  and  order  of 
society :  and  earnestly  exhorting  them  at  all  times, 
and  to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  to  avoid  and 
discourage  all  proceedings,  tending  to  produce 
tumults  and  riots:  and  we  do  strictly  charge  and 
command  all  our  magistrates  in  and  throughout 
our  kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  that  they  do  make 
diligent  inquiry,  in  order  to  discover  the  authors 
and  printers  of  such  wicked  and  seditious  writings 
as  aforesaid,  and  all  others  who  shall  disperse 
the  same :  and  we  do  further  charge  and  command 
all  our  sheriffs,  justices  of  the  peace,  chief  mag- 
istrates in  our  cities,  boroughs  and  corpora- 
tions, and  all  other  our  officers  and  magistrates 
throughout  our  kingdom  of  Great  Britain. 

"That  they  do,  in  their  several  and  respective 
stations,  take  the  most  immediate  and  effectual 
care  to  suppress  and  prevent  all  riots,  tumults  and 
other  disorders,  which  may  be  attempted  to  be 

47 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

raised  or  made  by  any  person  or  persons,  which, 
on  whatever  pretext  they  may  be  grounded,  are 
not  only  contrary  to  law,  but  dangerous  to  the 
most  important  interests  of  this  kingdom:  and  we 
do  further  require  and  command  all  and  every 
our  magistrates  aforesaid  that  they  do  from  time 
to  time  transmit  to  one  of  our  principal  secre- 
taries of  state  due  and  full  information  of  such 
persons  as  shall  be  found  offending  as  aforesaid, 
or  in  any  degree  aiding  or  abetting  therein:  it 
being  our  determination,  for  the  preservation  of 
the  peace  and  happiness  of  our  faithful  and  lov- 
ing subjects,  to  carry  the  laws  vigorously  into 
execution  against  such  offenders  as  aforesaid. 
Given  at  our  Court  at  the  Queen's  House,  the 
twenty-first  day  of  May,  one  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred and  ninety-two,  in  the  thirty-second  year  of 
our  reign. — God  save  the  King." 

Soon  after  this,  Mr.  Paine's  excellent  "Let- 
ters" to  Lord  Onslow,  to  Mr.  Dundas,  and  the 
Sheriff  of  Sussex  were  published. 

Mr.  Paine's  trial  for  the  second  part  of 
"Rights  of  Man"  took  place  on  the  eighteenth  of 
December,  1792,  and  he  being  found  guilty,  the 
booksellers  and  publishers  who  were  taken  up  and 
imprisoned  previously  to  this  trial  forbore  to 
stand  one  themselves,  and  suffered  judgment  to 
48 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

go  by  default,  for  which  they  received  the  sen- 
tence of  three  years'  imprisonment  each.  Of 
these  booksellers  and  publishers  I  was  one,  but 
by  flying  to  France  I  eluded  this  merciful 
sentence. 

On  the  subject  of  these  prosecutions  I  wrote 
to  Mr.  Fox,  whom  I  well  knew,  and  my  intimate 
friend  for  years,  Lord  Stanhope,  as  I  was  myself 
the  subject  of  two  of  them,  and  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  party  factions  of  the  day,  and 
the  iniquitous  intrigues  of  the  opposing  leaders, 
in  and  out  of  office ;  for  the  writings  of  Mr.  Paine, 
which  were  as  broad  as  the  universe,  and  having 
nothing  to  do  with  impure  elections  and  auger- 
hole  politics,  gave  equal  offense  to  all  sides. 

In  the  course  of  these  letters,  which  are  still 
extant,  it  was  impossible  not  to  dwell  on  the  ab- 
surdity of  trial  by  jury  in  matters  of  opinion,  and 
the  folly  of  any  body  of  men  deciding  for  others 
in  science  and  speculative  discussion,  in  politics 
and  religion.  Is  it  not  applying  the  institution 
of  juries  to  purposes  for  which  they  were  not  in- 
tended, to  set  up  twelve  men  to  judge  and  deter- 
mine for  a  whole  nation  on  matters  that  relate  to 
systems  and  principles  of  government?  A  mat- 
ter of  fact  may  be  cognizable  by  a  jury,  and  cer- 
tainly ascertained  with  respect  to  offenses  against 

49 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

common  law  and  in  the  ordinary  intercourses  of 
society;  but  on  matters  of  political  opinion,  of 
taste,  of  metaphysical  inquiry,  and  of  religious 
belief,  everyone  must  be  left  to  decide  as  his 
inquiries,  his  experience,  and  his  conviction  impel 
him. 

If  the  arm  of  power  in  every  country  and  on 
every  doctrine  could  have  enforced  its  tyranny, 
almost  all  we  now  possess,  and  that  is  valuable, 
would  have  been  destroyed ;  and  if  all  the  govern- 
ments and  factions  that  have  made  the  world  mis- 
erable could  have  had  their  way,  everything 
desirable  in  art,  science,  philosophy,  literature, 
politics  and  religion,  would  have  been  by  turns 
obliterated,  and  the  Bible,  the  Testament,  the 
Alcoran,  the  writings  of  Locke,  Erasmus,  Hel- 
vetius,  Mercier,  Milton,  Shakespeare,  Voltaire, 
Montesquieu,  Swift,  Bolanger,  Hume,  Penn, 
Tucker,  Paine,  Bacon,  Bolingbroke,  and  of  thou- 
sands of  others  on  all  sides  would  have  been 
burned;  nor  would  there  be  a  printing  press  in 
the  world. 

It  has  happened  happily  for  many  years  past, 
thanks  to  the  art  of  printing  and  the  means 
adopted  to  crush  the  circulation  of  knowledge, 
that  the  very  modes  employed  to  accomplish  this 
end  have  not  only  proved  abortive,  but  have  given 
50 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

wings  to  truth,  and  diffused  it  into  every  corner 
of  the  universe.  The  publication  of  trials  con- 
taining quotations  from  the  works  to  be  put  down 
have  disseminated  their  contents  infinitely  wider 
than  they  would  else  have  reached,  and  have  ex- 
cited inquiries  that  would  otherwise  have  lain 
dormant. 

So  ludicrously  did  this  strike  Mr.  Paine  that 
his  frequent  toast  was,  "The  best  way  of  adver- 
tising good  books — by  prosecution." 

As  the  attorney-general's  attacks  upon  pros- 
ecuted works  of  a  clever  and  profound  descrip- 
tion, and  the  judges'  charges  upon  them  contain 
nothing  like  argument  or  refutation,  but  follow 
up  the  criminating  and  absurd  language  of  the 
indictment  or  ex-officio  information,  and  breathe 
only  declamation  and  ignorant  abuse,  they  by 
their  weakness  expose  the  cause  they  espouse,  and 
strengthen  the  truths  they  affect  to  destroy. 

I  shall  close  these  observations  by  quoting  two 
old  and  good  humored  lines : 

Treason   does   never   prosper — what's   the   reason? 
When  it  prospers — it  is  never  treason! 

This  trial  of  Mr.  Paine,  and  these  sentences, 
subverted  of  course  the  very  end  they  were  in- 
tended to  effect. 

51 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

Mr.  Paine  was  acknowledged  deputy  for  Ca- 
lais the  twenty-first  of  September,  1792.  In 
France,  during  the  early  part  of  the  Revolution, 
his  time  was  almost  wholly  occupied  as  a  deputy 
of  the  Convention  and  as  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Constitution.  His  company  was  now 
coveted  and  sought  after  universally  among  every 
description  of  people,  and  by  many  who  for  some 
reasons  never  chose  to  avow  it.  With  the  Earl 
of  Lauderdale  and  Dr.  Moore,  whose  company  he 
was  fond  of,  he  dined  every  Friday  till  Lord 
Gower's  departure  made  it  necessary  for  them  to 
quit  France,  which  was  early  in  1793. 

About  this  period  he  removed  from  White's 
Hotel  to  one  near  the  Rue  de  Richelieu,  where  he 
was  so  plagued  and  interrupted  by  numerous  vis- 
itors, and  sometimes  by  adventurers,  that  in  order 
to  have  some  time  to  himself  he  appropriated  two 
mornings  in  a  week  for  his  levee  days.  To  this 
indeed  he  was  extremely  averse,  from  the  fuss  and 
formality  attending  it,  but  he  was  nevertheless 
obliged  to  adopt  it. 

Annoyed  and  disconcerted  with  a  life  so  con- 
trary to  his  wishes  and  habits,  and  so  inimical  to 
his  views,  he  retired  to  the  Faubourg  St.  Denis, 
where  he  occupied  part  of  the  hotel  that  Madame 
de  Pompadour  once  resided  in. 
52 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Here  was  a  good  garden  well  laid  out,  and 
here,  too,  our  mutual  friend,  Mr.  Choppin,  occu- 
pied apartments:  at  this  residence,  which  for  a 
town  one  was  very  quiet,  he  lived  a  life  of  retire- 
ment and  philosophical  ease,  while  it  was  believed 
he  was  gone  into  the  country  for  his  health,  which 
by  this  time  indeed  was  much  impaired  by  intense 
application  to  business,  and  by  the  anxious  solici- 
tude he  felt  for  the  welfare  of  public  affairs. 

Here,  with  a  chosen  few,  he  unbent  himself; 
among  whom  were  Brissot,  the  Marquis  de  Cha- 
telet  le  Roi,  of  the  galerie  de  honore,  and  an  old 
friend  of  Dr.  Franklin's,  Bancal,  and  sometimes 
General  Miranda.  His  English  associates  were 
Christie  and  family,  Mrs.  Wollstonecraft,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Stone,  etc.  Among  his  American 
friends  were  Captain  Imlay,  Joel  Barlow,  etc., 
etc.  To  these  parties  the  French  inmates  were 
generally  invited. 

Joel  Barlow  was  for  many  years  Mr.  Paine's 
intimate  friend,  and  it  was  from  Mr.  Paine  he 
derived  much  of  the  great  knowledge  and  acute- 
ness  of  talent  he  possessed. 

Joel  Barlow  was  a  great  philosopher,  and  a 
great  poet;  but  there  are  spots  in  the  sun,  and  I 
instance  the  following  littleness  in  his  conduct  as 
a  warning,  and  to  prove  how  much  of  honest  fame 

53 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

and  character  is  lost  by  anything  like  tergiver- 
sation. 

Joel  Barlow  has  omitted  the  name  of  Mr. 
Paine  in  his  very  fine  poem,  "The  Columbiad";  a 
name  essential  to  the  works,  as  the  principal 
founder  of  the  American  Republic  and  of  the 
happiness  of  its  citizens. 

Omitting  the  name  of  Mr.  Paine  in  the  history 
of  America,  and  where  the  amelioration  of  the 
human  race  is  so  much  concerned,  is  like  omitting 
the  name  of  Newton  in  writing  the  history  of  his 
philosophy,  or  that  of  God  when  creation  is  the 
subject;  yet  this,  Joel  Barlow  has  done,  and  done 
so,  lest  the  name  of  Paine,  combined  with  his  the- 
ological opinions,  should  injure  the  sale  of  the 
poem.    Mean  and  unhandsome  conduct! 

He  usually  rose  about  seven,  breakfasted  with 
his  friends,  Choppin,  Johnson,  and  two  or  three 
other  Englishmen,  and  a  Monsieur  La  Borde, 
who  had  been  an  officer  in  the  ci-devante  garde  du 
corps,  an  intolerable  aristocrat,  but  whose  skill  in 
mechanics  and  geometry  brought  on  a  friendship 
between  him  and  Paine:  for  the  undaunted  and 
distinguished  ability  and  firmness  with  which  he 
ever  defended  his  own  opinions  when  controver- 
ted, do  not  reflect  higher  honor  upon  him  than 
that  unbounded  liberality  toward  the  opinions  of 
54 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

others  which  constituted  such  a  prominent  feature 
in  his  character,  and  which  never  suffered  mere 
difference  of  sentiment,  whether  political  or  re- 
ligious, to  interrupt  the  harmonious  intercourse 
of  friendship,  or  impede  the  interchanges  of 
knowledge  and  information. 

After  breakfast  he  usually  strayed  an  hour  or 
two  in  the  garden,  where  he  one  morning  pointed 
out  the  kind  of  spider  whose  web  furnished  him 
with  the  first  idea  of  constructing  his  iron  bridge ; 
a  fine  model  of  which,  in  mahogany,  is  preserved 
at  Paris. 

The  little  happy  circle  who  lived  with  him  here 
will  ever  remember  these  days  with  delight :  with 
these  select  friends  he  would  talk  of  his  boyish 
days,  play  at  chess,  whist,  piquet,  or  cribbage,  and 
enliven  the  moments  by  many  interesting  anec- 
dotes :  with  these  he  would  play  at  marbles,  scotch 
hops,  battledores,  etc.,  on  the  broad  and  fine 
gravel  walk  at  the  upper  end  of  the  garden,  and 
then  retire  to  his  boudoir,  where  he  was  up  to  his 
knees  in  letters  and  papers  of  various  descrip- 
tions. Here  he  remained  till  dinner  time;  and 
unless  he  visited  Brissot's  family,  or  some  particu- 
lar friend  in  the  evening,  which  was  his  frequent 
custom,  he  joined  again  the  society  of  his  favor- 
rites  and  fellow-boarders,  with  whom  his  conver- 

55 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

sation  was  often  witty  and  cheerful,  always  acute 
and  improving,  but  never  frivolous. 

Incorrupt,  straightforward  and  sincere,  he 
pursued  his  political  course  in  France,  as  every- 
where else,  let  the  government  or  clamor  or  fac- 
tion of  the  day  be  what  it  might,  with  firmness, 

with  clearness,  and  without  a  "shadow  of  turn- 
ip.«.  >» 
mg. 

In  all  Mr.  Paine's  inquiries  and  conversations 
he  evinced  the  strongest  attachment  to  the  inves- 
tigation of  truth,  and  was  always  for  going  to  the 
fountain  head  for  information.  He  often  lamen- 
ted we  had  no  good  history  of  America,  and  that 
the  letters  written  by  Columbus,  the  early  navi- 
gators, and  others,  to  the  Spanish  Court,  were 
inaccessible,  and  that  many  valuable  documents, 
collected  by  Philip  II,  and  deposited  with  the 
national  archives  at  Simania,  had  not  yet  been 
promulgated.  He  used  to  speak  highly  of  the 
sentimental  parts  of  Raynal's  "History." 

It  is  not  intended  to  enter  into  an  account  of 
the  French  Revolution,  its  progress,  the  different 
colors  it  took  and  aspects  it  assumed.  The  his- 
tory of  this  most  important  event  may  be  found 
at  large  detailed  by  French  writers  as  well  as 
those  of  other  nations,  and  the  world  is  left  to 
judge  of  it. 
56 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

It  is  unfortunate  for  mankind  that  Mr.  Paine 
by  imprisonment  and  the  loss  of  his  invaluable 
papers,  was  prevented  giving  the  best,  most  can- 
did, and  philosophical  account  of  these  times. 
These  papers  contained  the  history  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  were  no  doubt  a  most  correct, 
discriminating,  and  enlightened  detail  of  the 
events  of  that  important  era.  For  these  papers 
the  historian,  Gibbon,  sent  to  France,  and  made 
repeated  application,  upon  a  conviction  that  they 
would  be  impartial,  profound,  and  philosophical 
documents. 

It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Paine  always  la- 
mented the  turn  affairs  took  in  France,  and 
grieved  at  the  period  we  are  now  adverting  to, 
when  corrupt  influence  was  rapidly  infecting 
every  department  of  the  state.  He  saw  the 
jealousies  and  animosities  that  were  breeding,  and 
that  a  turbulent  faction  was  forming  among  the 
people  that  would  first  enslave  and  ultimately 
overwhelm  even  the  Convention  itself. 

On  the  day  of  the  trial  of  Marat,  Mr.  Paine 
dined  at  White's  Hotel  with  Mr.  Milnes,  a  gen- 
tleman of  great  hospitality  and  profusion,  who 
usually  gave  a  public  dinner  to  twenty  or  thirty 
gentlemen  once  a  week.  At  table,  among  many 
others  besides  Mr.  Paine,  was  a  Captain  Grim- 
i-t  57 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

stone,  who  was  a  lineal  descendant  from  Sir  Har- 
bottle  Grimstone,  who  was  a  member  of  Crom- 
well's Parliament  and  an  officer  in  his  army. 
This  man  was  a  high  aristocrat,  a  great  gambler, 
and  it  was  believed  could  not  quit  France  on 
account  of  his  being  much  in  debt.  He  took  lit- 
tle pains  to  conceal  his  political  principles,  and 
when  the  glass  had  freely  circulated,  a  short  time 
after  dinner  he  attempted,  loudly  and  imperti- 
nently, to  combat  the  political  doctrines  of  the 
philosopher ;  this  was,  to  be  sure,  the  viper  biting 
at  the  file. 

Mr.  Paine,  in  few  words,  with  much  acute- 
ness  and  address,  continued  exposing  the  fal- 
lacy of  his  reasoning,  and  rebutting  his  invectives. 

The  Captain  became  more  violent,  and  waxed 
so  angry,  that  at  length,  rising  from  his  chair,  he 
walked  round  the  table  to  where  Mr.  Paine  was 
sitting,  and  here  began  a  volley  of  abuse,  calling 
him  incendiary,  traitor  to  his  country,  and  struck 
him  a  violent  blow  that  nearly  knocked  him  off 
his  seat.  Captain  Grimstone  was  a  stout  young 
man  about  thirty,  and  Mr.  Paine  at  this  time 
nearly  sixty. 

The  company,  who  suspected  not  such  an 
outrage  against  everything  decent,  mannerly, 
and  just,  and  who  had  occasion  frequently  during 
58 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

dinner  to  call  him  to  order,  were  now  obliged  to 
give  him  in  charge  of  the  National  Guard.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  an  act  of  the  Conven- 
tion had  made  it  death  to  strike  a  deputy,  and 
every  one  in  company  with  the  person  committing 
the  assault  refusing  to  give  up  the  offender  was 
considered  as  an  accomplice. 

But  a  short  period  before  this  circumstance 
happened,  nine  men  had  been  decapitated,  one  of 
whom  had  struck  Bourdeur  de  L'oise,  at  Orleans. 
The  other  eight  were  walking  with  him  in  the 
street  at  the  time. 

Paine  was  extremely  agitated  when  he  re- 
flected on  the  danger  of  his  unprovoked  enemy, 
and  immediately  applied  to  Barrere,  at  that  time 
president  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  for 
a  passport  for  the  unhappy  man,  who  must  other- 
wise have  suffered  death;  and  though  he  found 
the  greatest  difficulty  in  effecting  this,  he  however 
persevered  and  at  length  accomplished  it,  at  the 
same  time  sending  Grimstone  money  to  defray 
his  traveling  expenses ;  for  his  passport  was  of  so 
short  a  duration  that  he  was  obliged  to  go  imme- 
diately from  his  prison  to  the  messagerie  na- 
tionale. 

Of  Mr.  Paine's  arrest  by  Robespierre  and 
his  imprisonment,  etc.,  we  cannot  be  so  well  in- 

59 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

formed  as  by  himself  in  his  own  affecting  and 
interesting  letters. 

While  Mr.  Paine  was  in  prison  he  wrote  much 
of  his  "Age  of  Reason,"  and  amused  himself  with 
carrying  on  an  epistolary  correspondence  with 
Lady  S***  under  the  assumed  name  of  the 
castle  in  the  air,  and  her  ladyship  answered 
under  the  signature  of  the  little  corner  of 
the  world.  This  correspondence  is  reported 
to  be  extremely  beautiful  and  interesting. 

At  this  period  a  deputation  of  Americans  so- 
licited the  release  of  Thomas  Paine  from  prison; 
and  as  this  document,  and  the  way  in  which  it  is 
introduced  in  Mr.  Sampson  Perry's  "History  of 
the  French  Revolution,"  bear  much  interest,  and 
are  highly  honorable  to  Mr.  Paine,  the  deputa- 
tion, and  Mr.  Perry,  I  give  it  in  his  own  words : 

"As  an  historian  does  not  write  in  conformity 
to  the  humors  or  caprice  of  the  day,  but  looks  to 
the  mature  opinions  of  a  future  period,  so  the 
humble  tracer  of  these  hasty  sketches,  though 
without  pretensions  himself  to  live  in  after  times, 
is  nevertheless  at  once  desirous  of  proving  his  in- 
difference to  the  unpopularity  of  the  moment, 
and  his  confidence  in  the  justice  posterity  will 
exercise  toward  one  of  the  greatest  friends  of  the 
human  race.  The  author  is  the  more  authorized 
60 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

to  pass  this  eulogium  on  a  character  already  suf- 
ficiently renowned,  having  had  the  means  and  the 
occasion  of  exploring  his  mind  and  his  qualities, 
as  well  with  suspicion  as  with  confidence. 

"  The  name  of  Thomas  Paine  may  excite  ha- 
tred in  some,  and  inspire  terror  in  others.  It 
ought  to  do  neither,  he  is  the  friend  of  all ;  and  it  is 
only  because  reason  and  virtue  are  not  suffi- 
ciently prevalent,  that  so  many  do  not  love  him: 
he  is  not  the  enemy  of  those  even  who  are  eager 
to  have  his  fate  at  their  disposal.  The  time  may 
not  be  far  off  when  they  will  be  glad  their  fate 
were  at  his;  but  the  cowardly  as  well  as  the 
brave  have  contributed  to  fill  England  with  dis- 
honor for  silently  allowing  the  best  friends  of 
the  human  race  to  be  persecuted  with  a  virulence 
becoming  the  darkest  ages  only. 

"The  physical  world  is  in  rapid  movement, 
the  moral  advances  perhaps  as  quick;  that  part 
of  it  which  is  dark  now  will  be  light;  when  it 
shall  have  but  half  revolved,  men  and  things 
will  be  seen  more  clearly,  and  he  will  be  most 
esteemed  by  the  good  who  shall  have  made  the 
largest  sacrifice  to  truth  and  public  virtue. 
Thomas  Paine  was  suspected  of  having  checked 
the  aspiring  light  of  the  public  mind  by  opinions 
not  suitable  to  the  state  France  was  in.     He 

61 


WRITINGS   OF,   THOMAS   PAINE 

was  for  confiding  more  to  the  pen,  and  doubting 
the  effect  of  the  guillotine. 

"Robespierre  said,  that  method  would  do 
with  such  a  country  as  America,  but  could  avail 
nothing  in  one  highly  corrupted  like  France. 
To  disagree  in  opinion  with  a  mind  so  heated 
was  to  incur  all  the  resentment  it  contained. 
Thomas  Paine  had  preserved  an  intimacy  with 
Brissot  from  an  acquaintance  of  long  date,  and 
because  he  spoke  the  English  language;  when 
Brissot  fell,  Paine  was  in  danger,  and,  as  his 
preface  to  the  second  part  of  the  'Rights  of  Man/ 
shows,  he  had  a  miraculous  escape. 

"The  Americans  in  Paris  saw  the  perilous 
situation  of  their  fellow-citizen,  of  the  champion 
of  the  liberty  of  more  than  one-quarter  of  the 
world;  they  drew  up  an  address  and  presented 
it  at  the  bar  of  the  Convention ;  it  was  worded  as 
follows : 

"'Citizens!  the  French  nation  had  invited 
the  most  illustrious  of  all  foreign  nations  to  the 
honor  of  representing  her. 

"  'Thomas  Paine,  the  apostle  of  liberty  in 

America,  a  profound  and  valuable  philosopher, 

a  virtuous  and  esteemed  citizen,  came  to  France 

and  took  a  seat  among  you.     Particular  circum- 

62 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

stances  rendered  necessary  the  decree  to  put  un- 
der arrest  all  the  English  residing  in  France. 

"  'Citizens!  representatives!  we  come  to  de- 
mand of  you  Thomas  Paine,  in  the  name  of  the 
friends  of  liberty,  in  the  name  of  the  Americans 
your  brothers  and  allies;  was  there  anything 
more  wanted  to  obtain  our  demand  we  would 
tell  you.  Do  not  give  to  the  leagued  despots  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  Paine  in  irons.  We  shall  in- 
form you  that  the  seals  put  upon  the  papers  of 
Thomas  Paine  have  been  taken  off,  that  the  Com- 
mittee of  General  Safety  examined  them,  and 
far  from  finding  among  them  any  dangerous 
propositions,  they  only  found  the  love  of  liberty 
which  characterized  him  all  his  lifetime,  that  elo- 
quence of  nature  and  philosophy  which  made  him 
the  friend  of  mankind,  and  those  principles  of 
public  morality  which  merited  the  hatred  of 
kings  and  the  affection  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

"  'In  short,  citizens!  if  you  permit  us  to  re- 
store Thomas  Paine  to  the  embraces  of  his  fel- 
low-citizens we  offer  to  pledge  ourselves  as  secu- 
rity for  his  conduct  during  the  short  time  he 
shall  remain  in  France.'  " 

After  his  liberation  he  found  a  friendly  asy- 
lum at  the  American  Minister's  house,  Mr. 
Monroe,  and  for  some  years  before  Mr.  Paine 

63 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

left  Paris,  he  lodged  at  M.  Bonneville's,  associ- 
ating occasionally  with  the  great  men  of  the  day, 
Condorcet,  Volney,  Mercier,  Joel  Barlow,  etc., 
etc.,  and  sometimes  dining  with  Bonaparte  and 
his  generals.*  He  now  indulged  his  mechanical 
turn,  and  amused  himself  in  bridge  and  ship 
modeling,  and  in  pursuing  his  favorite  studies, 
the  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy. 
"These  models,"  says  a  correspondent  of  that 
time,  "exhibit  an  extraordinary  degree  not  only 
of  skill  but  of  taste  in  mechanics,  and  are  wrought 
with  extreme  delicacy  entirely  by  his  own  hands. 
The  largest  of  these,  the  model  of  a  bridge,  is 
nearly  four  feet  in  length:  the  iron- works,  the 
chains,  and  every  other  article  belonging  to  it 
were  forged  and  manufactured  by  himself.  It 
is  intended  as  a  model  of  a  bridge  which  is  to  be 
constructed  across  the  Delaware,  extending  480 
feet  with  only  one  arch.  The  other  is  to  be 
erected  over  a  narrower  river,  whose  name  I  for- 
get, and  is  likewise  a  single  arch,  and  of  his  own 

•When  Bonaparte  returned  from  Italy  he  called  on  Mr.  Paine 
and  invited  him  to  dinner:  in  the  course  of  his  rapturous  ad- 
dress to  him  he  declared  that  a  statue  of  gold  ought  to  be  erected 
to  him  in  every  city  in  the  universe,  assuring  him  that  he  always 
slept  with  his  book  "Rights  of  Man"  under  his  pillow  and  con- 
jured him  to  honor  him  with  his  correspondence  and  advice. 

This  anecdote  is  only  related  as  a  fact.  Of  the  sincerity  of 
the  compliment,  those  may  judge  who  know  Bonaparte's  princi- 
ples best. 

64 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

workmanship  excepting  the  chains,  which  in- 
stead of  iron  are  cut  out  of  pasteboard,  by  the 
fair  hands  of  his  correspondent,  the  little  cor- 
ner of  the  world,  whose  indefatigable  perse- 
verance is  extraordinary.  He  was  offered  £3,000 
for  these  models  and  refused  it.  He  also  forged 
himself  the  model  of  a  crane  of  a  new  descrip- 
tion, which  when  put  together  exhibited  the 
power  of  the  lever  to  a  most  surprising  degree." 

During  this  time  he  also  published  his  "Dis- 
sertation on  First  Principles  of  Government," 
his  "Essay  on  Finance,"  his  first  and  second  part 
of  the  "Age  of  Reason,"  his  "Letter  to  Washing- 
ton," his  "Address  to  the  Theophilanthropists," 
"Letter  to  Erskine,"  etc.,  etc.  Poetry,  too,  em- 
ployed his  idle  hours,  and  he  produced  some  fine 
pieces,  which  the  world  will  probably  one  day  see. 

Wearied  with  the  direction  things  took  in 
France,  which  he  used  to  say,  was  "the  promised 
land,  but  not  the  land  of  promise,"  he  had  long 
sighed  for  his  own  dear  America. 

"It  is,"  he  would  say,  "the  country  of  my 
heart  and  the  place  of  my  political  and  literary 
birth.  It  was  the  American  Revolution  made 
me  an  author,  and  forced  into  action  the  mind 
that  had  been  dormant  and  had  no  wish  for  public 
life,  nor  has  it  now."     Mr.  Paine  made  many 

65 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

efforts  to  cross  the  Atlantic,  but  they  were  inef- 
fectual. 

In  July,  1802,  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  then  Pres- 
ident of  America,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Paine  writes 
thus: 

"You  express  a  wish  in  your  letter  to  return 
to  America  by  a  national  ship. 

"Mr.  Dawson,  who  brings  over  the  treaty, 
and  who  will  present  you  this  letter,  is  charged 
with  orders  to  the  captain  of  the  Maryland,  to 
receive  and  accommodate  you  back  if  you  can  be 
ready  to  return  at  such  a  short  warning.  You 
will  in  general  find  us  returned  to  sentiments 
worthy  of  former  times;  in  these  it  will  be  your 
glory  to  have  steadily  labored,  and  with  as  much 
effect  as  any  man  living.  That  you  may  live 
long  to  continue  your  useful  labors,  and  reap  the 
reward  in  the  thankfulness  of  nations,  is  my  sin- 
cere prayer.  Accept  the  assurance  of  my  high 
esteem  and  affectionate  attachment. 

"  Thomas  Jefferson." 

Washington,  July,  1802. 

By  the  Maryland,  as  Mr.  Paine  states,  he  did 
not  go;  and  it  was  not  till  the  first  of  September, 
1802,   after  spending  some  time  with  him  at 
66 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

Havre  de  Grace,  that  I  took  leave  of  him  on  his 
departure  for  America,  in  a  ship  named  the  Lon- 
don P acquetj  just  ten  years  after  his  leaving  my 
house  in  London. 

The  ardent  desire  which  Mr.  Paine  ever  had 
to  retire  to  and  dwell  in  his  beloved  America  is 
strongly  portrayed  in  the  following  letter  to  a 
female  friend  in  that  country,  written  some  years 
before. 

"You  touch  me  on  a  very  tender  point  when 
you  say  that  my  friends  on  your  side  of  the  water 
cannot  be  reconciled  to  the  idea  of  my  abandon- 
ing America  even  for  my  native  England. 

"They  are  right,  I  had  rather  see  my  horse 
*  Button'  eating  the  grass  of  Borden  Town  or 
Morrisania,  than  see  all  the  pomp  and  show  of 
Europe. 

"A  thousand  years  hence,  for  I  must  indulge 
a  few  thoughts,  perhaps  in  less,  America  may  be 
what  Europe  now  is.  The  innocence  of  her  char- 
acter that  won  the  hearts  of  all  nations  in  her 
favor  may  sound  like  a  romance,  and  her  inimita- 
ble virtue  as  if  it  had  never  been. 

"The  ruins  of  that  liberty  for  which  thousands 
bled  may  just  furnish  materials  for  a  village  tale, 
or  extort  a  sigh  from  rustic  sensibility,  while  the 

67 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

fashionable  of  that  day,  enveloped  in  dissipation, 
shall  deride  the  principles  and  deny  the  fact. 

"When  we  contemplate  the  fall  of  empires 
and  the  extinction  of  the  nations  of  the  ancient 
world  we  see  but  little  more  to  excite  our  regret 
than  the  moldering  ruins  of  pompous  palaces, 
magnificent  monuments,  lofty  pyramids,  and 
walls  and  towers  of  the  most  costly  workmanship ; 
but  when  the  empire  of  America  shall  fall,  the 
subject  for  contemplative  sorrow  will  be  infinitely 
greater  than  crumbling  brass  or  marble  can  in- 
spire. It  will  not  then  be  said,  here  stood  a  tem- 
ple of  vast  antiquity,  here  rose  a  babel  of  invisible 
height,  or  there  a  palace  of  sumptuous  extrava- 
gance; but  here  (ah!  painful  thought!)  the  no- 
blest work  of  human  wisdom,  the  grandest  scene 
of  human  glory,  and  the  fair  cause  of  freedom, 
rose  and  fell !  Read  this,  and  then  ask  if  I  forget 
America." 

There  is  so  uncommon  a  degree  of  interest, 
and  that  which  conveys  an  idea  of  so  much  heart 
intercourse  in  this  letter,  that  the  reader  may  be 
led  to  desire  some  knowledge  of  the  person  to 
whom  it  was  addressed.  This  lady's  name  was  I 
believe  Nicholson,  and  afterwards  the  wife  of 
Colonel  Few ;  between  her  and  Mr.  Paine  a  very 
68 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

affectionate  attachment  and  sincere  regard  sub- 
sisted, and  it  was  no  small  mortification  on  his 
final  return  to  New  York  to  be  totally  neglected 
by  her  and  her  husband. 

But  against  the  repose  of  Mr.  Paine's  dying 
moments  there  seems  to  have  been  a  conspiracy, 
and  this  lady  after  years  of  disregard  and  inat- 
tention sought  Mr.  Paine  on  his  death  bed. 

Mr.  Few  was  with  her,  but  Mr.  Paine,  refus- 
ing to  shake  hands  with  her,  said  firmly  and  very 
impressively,  "You  have  neglected  me,  and  I  beg 
you  will  leave  the  room." 

Mrs.  Few  went  into  the  garden,  and  wept 
bitterly. 

Of  Mr.  Paine's  reception  in  America  and 
some  interesting  account  of  his  own  life  and  its 
vicissitudes,  his  "Letters  to  the  Citizens  of  Amer- 
ica," before  noticed,  speak  better  than  I  can. 

These  letters,  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Monroe, 
he  sent  me  in  1804,  and  I  published  them,  with 
the  following  one  of  his  own  accompanying  them. 

"My  dear  Friend, 

"Mr.  Monroe,  who  is  appointed  Minister  Ex- 
traordinary to  France,  takes  charge  of  this,  to 
be  delivered  to  Mr.  Este,  banker  in  Paris,  to  be 
forwarded  to  you. 

69 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

"I  arrived  at  Baltimore,  thirtieth  of  October, 
and  you  can  have  no  idea  of  the  agitation  which 
my  arrival  occasioned.  From  New  Hampshire 
to  Georgia  (an  extent  of  1,500  miles)  every  news- 
paper was  filled  with  applause  or  abuse. 

"My  property  in  this  country  has  been  taken 
care  of  by  my  friends,  and  is  now  worth  six  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling ;  which  put  in  the  funds  will 
bring  me  £400  sterling  a  year. 

"Remember  me  in  friendship  and  affection  to 
your  wife  and  family,  and  in  the  circle  of  our 
friends. 

"I  am  but  just  arrived  here,  and  the  Minister 
sails  in  a  few  hours,  so  that  I  have  just  time  to 
write  you  this.  If  he  should  not  sail  this  tide  I 
will  write  to  my  good  friend  Colonel  Bosville,  but 
in  any  case  I  request  you  to  wait  on  him  for  me. 
"Yours  in  friendship, 

"Thomas  Paine/' 

What  course  he  meant  to  pursue  in  America, 
his  own  words  will  best  tell,  and  best  characterize 
his  sentiments  and  principles:  they  are  these: 

"As  this  letter  is  intended  to  announce  my 

arrival  to  my  friends,  and  my  enemies  if  I  have 

any,  for  I  ought  to  have  none  in  America,  and  as 

introductory  to  others  that  will  occasionally  fol- 

70 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

low,  I  shall  close  it  by  detailing  the  line  of  conduct 
I  shall  pursue. 

"I  have  no  occasion  to  ask,  nor  do  I  intend  to 
accept,  any  place  or  office  in  the  Government. 

"There  is  none  it  could  give  me  that  would  in 
any  way  be  equal  to  the  profits  I  could  make  as 
an  author  ( for  I  have  an  established  fame  in  the 
literary  world)  could  I  reconcile  it  to  my  princi- 
ples to  make  money  by  my  politics  or  religion ;  I 
must  be  in  everything  as  I  have  ever  been,  a  dis- 
interested volunteer.  My  proper  sphere  of  ac- 
tion is  on  the  common  floor  of  citizenship,  and  to 
honest  men  I  give  my  hand  and  my  heart  freely. 

"I  have  some  manuscript  works  to  publish,  of 
which  I  shall  give  proper  notice,  and  some 
mechanical  affairs  to  bring  forward,  that  will  em- 
ploy all  my  leisure  time. 

"I  shall  continue  these  letters  as  I  see  occa- 
sion, and  as  to  the  low  party  prints  that  choose  to 
abuse  me,  they  are  welcome;  I  shall  not  descend 
to  answer  them.  I  have  been  too  much  used  to 
such  common  stuff  to  take  any  notice  of  it. 

"Thomas  Paine. 
"  City  of  Washington/' 

From  this  period  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
which  was  the  ninth  of  June,  1809,  Mr.  Paine 

71 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

lived  principally  at  New  York,  and  on  his  estate 
at  New  Rochelle;  publishing  occasionally  some 
excellent  things  in  the  Aurora  newspaper,  also 
"An  Essay  on  the  Invasion  of  England,"  "On 
the  Yellow  Fever,"  "On  Gun-Boats,  etc.,  etc.," 
and  in  1807,  "An  Examination  of  the  Passages  in 
the  New  Testament,  Quoted  from  the  Old,  and 
Called  Prophecies  Concerning  Jesus  Christ,  etc." 

This  is  a  most  acute,  profound,  clear,  argu- 
mentative, and  entertaining  work,  and  may  be 
considered  and  is  now  entitled  "The  Third  Part 
of  the  Age  of  Reason." 

In  the  course  of  Mr.  Paine's  life,  he  was  often 
reminded  of  a  reply  he  once  made  to  this  obser- 
vation of  Dr.  Franklin's,  "Where  liberty  is,  there 
is  my  country:"  Mr.  Paine's  retort  was,  "Where 
liberty  is  not,  there  is  my  country."  And,  un- 
fortunately, he  had  occasion  for  many  years  in 
Europe  to  realize  the  truth  of  his  axiom. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Paine's  arrival  in  America,  he 
invited  over  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bonneville  and  their 
children.  At  Bonneville's  house  at  Paris  he  had 
for  years  found  a  home,  a  friendly  shelter,  when 
the  difficulty  of  getting  supplies  of  money  from 
America,  and  other  and  many  ills  assailed  him. 
Bonneville  and  his  family  were  poor,  and  sunk  in 
the  world;  Mr.  Paine  therefore,  though  he  was 
72 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

not  their  inmate  without  remuneration,  offered 
them  an  asylum  with  him  in  America.  Mrs. 
Bonneville  and  her  three  boys,  to  whom  he  was  a 
friend  during  his  life  and  at  his  death,  soon  joined 
him  there. 

The  particulars  of  Mr.  Paine  being  shot  at 
while  sitting  by  his  fireside  at  New  Rochelle  are 
given  in  his  own  letters.  The  bullet  from  the 
fire-arm  shattered  the  glass  over  the  chimney- 
piece  very  near  to  him.  I  find  a  letter  in  reply  to 
one  of  mine,  in  which  he  writes,  "the  account  you 
heard  of  a  man's  firing  into  my  house  is  true — 
the  grand  jury  found  the  bill  against  him,  and  he 
lies  over  for  trial." 

In  January,  1809,  Mr.  Paine  became  very 
feeble  and  infirm,  so  much  so,  as  to  be  scarcely 
capable  of  doing  anything  for  himself. 

During  this  illness  he  was  pestered  on  every 
hand  with  the  intrusive  and  impertinent  visits  of 
the  bigoted,  the  fanatic,  and  the  designing.  To 
entertain  the  reader,  some  specimens  of  the  con- 
duct of  these  intruders  are  here  given. 

He  usually  took  a  nap  after  dinner,  and 
would  not  be  disturbed  let  who  would  call  to  see 
him.  One  afternoon  a  very  old  lady  dressed  in  a 
large,  scarlet,  hooded  cloak  knocked  at  the  door 
and  inquired  for  Thomas  Paine.  Mr.  Jarvis, 
!-*  73 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

with  whom  Mr.  Paine  resided,  told  her  he  was 
asleep. 

"I  am  very  sorry,"  she  said,  "for  that,  for  I 
want  to  see  him  particularly." 

Thinking  it  a  pity  to  make  an  old  woman  call 
twice,  Mr.  Jarvis  took  her  into  Mr.  Paine's  bed 
room,  and  awoke  him.  He  rose  upon  one  elbow, 
and  then,  with  an  expression  of  eye  that  made 
the  old  woman  stagger  back  a  step  or  two,  he 
asked, 

"What  do  you  want?" 

"Is  your  name  Paine?" 

"Yes." 

"Well  then,  I  come  from  Almighty  God  to 
tell  you  that  if  you  do  not  repent  of  your  sins, 
and  believe  in  our  Blessed  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
you  will  be  damned,  and — " 

"Poh,  poh,  it  is  not  true,"  replied  Paine,  "you 
were  not  sent  with  any  such  impertinent  mes- 
sage. Jarvis  make  her  go  away:  pshaw!  He 
would  not  send  such  a  foolish,  ugly  old  woman 
about  with  His  messages ;  go  away,  go  back,  shut 
the  door." 

The  old  lady  retired,  raised  both  her  hands, 
kept  them  so,  and  without  saying  another  word 
walked  away  in  mute  astonishment. 
74 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

The  following  is  a  curious  example  of  a 
friendly,  neighborly  visit. 

About  two  weeks  before  his  death  he  was  vis- 
ited by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Milledollar,  a  Presbyterian 
minister  of  great  eloquence,  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Cunningham.    The  latter  gentleman  said: 

"Mr.  Paine,  we  visit  you  as  friends  and  neigh- 
bors. You  have  now  a  full  view  of  death,  you 
cannot  live  long,  and  whoever  does  not  believe 
in  Jesus  Christ  will  assuredly  be  damned." 

"Let  me,"  said  Paine,  "have  none  of  your 
popish  stuff.  Get  away  with  you.  Good  morn- 
ing, Sir,  good  morning." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Milledollar  attempted  to  ad- 
dress him  but  he  was  interrupted  in  the  same 
language.  When  they  were  gone,  he  said  to 
Mrs.  Hedden,  his  housekeeper,  "do  not  let  them 
come  here  again,  they  intrude  upon  me." 

They  soon  renewed  their  visit,  but  Mrs.  Hed- 
den told  them  they  could  not  be  admitted,  and 
that  she  thought  the  attempt  useless,  for  if  God 
did  not  change  his  mind,  she  was  sure  no  human 
power  could.    They  retired. 

Among  others,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hargrove,  min- 
ister of  a  new  sect  called  the  New  Jerusalemites, 
once  accosted  him  with  this  impertinent  stuff: 

"My  name  is  Hargrove,  Sir;  I  am  a  minister 

75 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

of  the  New  Jerusalem  Church.  We,  Sir,  ex- 
plain the  Scripture  in  its  true  meaning;  the  key 
has  been  lost  these  four  thousand  years,  and  we 
have  found  it." 

"Then,"  said  Paine  in  his  own  neat  way,  "it 
must  have  been  very  rusty." 

In  his  last  moments  he  was  very  anxious  to 
die,  and  also  very  solicitous  about  the  mode  of 
his  burial ;  for  as  he  was  completely  unchanged  in 
his  theological  sentiments,  he  would  on  no  ac- 
count, even  after  death,  countenance  ceremonies 
he  disapproved,  containing  doctrines  and  ex- 
pressions of  a  belief  which  he  conscientiously  ob- 
jected to,  and  had  spent  a  great  part  of  his  life 
in  combating. 

He  wished  to  be  interred  in  the  Quakers' 
burying  ground,  and  on  this  subject  he  requested 
to  see  Mr.  Willet  Hicks,  a  member  of  the  Soci- 
ety, who  called  on  him  in  consequence. 

Mr.  Paine,  after  the  usual  salutations,  said, 
"As  I  am  going  to  leave  one  place  it  is  neces- 
sary to  provide  another ;  I  am  now  in  my  seventy- 
third  year,  and  do  not  expect  to  live  long;  I  wish 
to  be  buried  in  your  burying  ground." 

He  said  his  father  was  a  Quaker,  and  that  he 
thought  better  of  the  principles  of  that  Society 
than  any  other,  and  approved  their  mode  of 
76 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

burial.  This  request  of  Mr.  Paine  was  refused, 
very  much  to  the  discredit  of  those  who  did  so; 
and  as  the  Quakers  are  not  unused  to  grant  such 
indulgences,  in  this  case  it  seemed  to  arise  from 
very  little  and  unworthy  motives  and  prejudices 
on  the  part  of  those  who  complied  not  with  this 
earnest  and  unassuming  solicitation. 

The  above  named  Quaker  in  a  conversation 
of  a  serious  nature  with  Mr.  Paine,  a  short  time 
before  his  death,  was  assured  by  him  that  his 
sentiments  respecting  the  Christian  religion  were 
now  precisely  the  same  as  when  he  wrote  the 
"Age  of  Reason." 

About  the  fourth  of  May,  symptoms  of  ap- 
proaching dissolution  became  very  evident  to 
himself,  and  he  soon  fell  off  his  milk-punch,  and 
became  too  infirm  to  take  anything ;  complaining 
of  much  bodily  pain. 

On  the  eighth  of  June,  1809,  about  nine  in 
the  morning,  he  placidly,  and  almost  without  a 
struggle,  died,  as  he  had  lived,  a  Deist. 

Why  so  much  consequence  should  be  attached 
to  what  is  called  a  recantation  in  a  man's  last 
moments  of  a  belief  or  opinion  held  through  life, 
a  thing  I  never  witnessed  nor  knew  anyone  who 
did,  it  is  difficult  to  say,  at  least  with  any  credit, 
to  those  who  harp  so  much  upon  it.     A  belief 

77 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

or  an  opinion  is  none  the  less  correct  or  true 
even  if  it  be  recanted,  and  I  strenuously  urge  the 
reader  to  reflect  seriously,  how  few  there  are  who 
really  have  any  fixed  belief  and  conviction 
through  life  of  a  metaphysical  or  religious  na- 
ture; how  few  who  devote  any  time  to  such  in- 
vestigation, or  who  are  not  the  creatures  of  form, 
education,  and  habit ;  and  take  upon  trust  tenets, 
instead  of  inquiring  into  their  truth  and  ration- 
ality. Indeed  it  appears  that  those  who  are  so 
loud  about  the  recantation  of  philosophers,  are 
neither  religious,  moral,  or  correct  themselves, 
and  exhibit  not  in  their  own  lives,  either  religion 
in  belief,  or  principle  in  conduct. 

Paine  was  aged  seventy-two  years  and  five 
months.  At  nine  of  the  clock  in  the  forenoon  of 
the  ninth  of  June,  the  day  after  his  decease,  he 
was  taken  from  his  house  at  Greenwich,  attended 
by  seven  persons,  to  New  Rochelle ;  where  he  was 
afterwards  interred  on  his  own  farm.  A  stone 
has  been  placed  at  the  head  of  his  grave  accord- 
ing to  the  direction  in  his  will,  with  the  following 
inscription : 

THOMAS  PAINE, 

AUTHOE    OF 

COMMON  SENSE, 
Died  June  8,  1809,  Aged  72  Years  and  5  Months. 
78 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

The  reader  must  from  the  foregoing  pages  be 
persuaded  how  unkindly  teased  and  obtrusively 
tormented  were  the  closing  hours  of  Mr.  Paine's 
life;  hours  that  always  should  be  soothed  by  ten- 
derness, quietude,  and  every  kind  attention,  and 
in  which  the  mind  generally  loses  all  its  strength 
and  energy,  and  is  as  unlike  its  former  self  as  its 
poor  suffering  companion  the  body. 

Infirmity  doth  still  neglect  all  office, 
Whereto  our  health  is  bound ;  we  are  not  ourselves 
When  nature,  being  oppress'd,  commands  the  mind 
To  suffer  with  the  body. — Shakespeare. 

To  a  rational  man  it  should  seem  that  a  Deist, 
if  he  be  so  from  principle,  and  he  is  as  likely  to 
be  so  as  any  other  religionist,  is  no  more  to  be 
expected  to  renounce  his  principles  on  his  death- 
bed or  to  abandon  his  belief  at  that  moment,  than 
the  Christian,  the  Jew,  the  Mahometan,  or  any 
other  religionist. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Paine  very  early, 
when  a  mere  child,  was  inspired  as  it  were  with 
the  anti-Christian  principles  which  he  held  reli- 
giously through  life. 

His  philosophical  and  astronomical  pursuits 
could  not  but  confirm  him  in  the  most  exalted, 

79 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

the  most  divine  ideas  of  a  supreme  being,  and  in 
the  purity  and  sublimity  of  Deism. 

A  belief  in  millions  of  millions  of  inhabited 
worlds,  millions  of  millions  of  miles  apart,  neces- 
sarily leads  the  mind  to  the  worship  of  a  God  in- 
finitely above  the  one  described  by  those  religion- 
ists who  speak  and  write  of  Him  as  they  do,  and 
as  if  He  were  only  the  maker  of  our  earth,  and  as 
alone  being  interested  in  what  concerns  it.  In 
contemplating  the  immense  works  of  God,  "the 
creation"  is  the  only  book  of  revelation  in  which 
the  Deist  can  believe;  and  his  religion  consists  in 
contemplating  the  power,  wisdom,  and  benignity 
of  God  in  His  glorious  works,  and  endeavoring 
to  imitate  Him  in  everything  moral,  scientific  and 
mechanical.  It  cannot  be  urged  too  strongly,  so 
much  wrongheadedness  if  not  wrongheartedness 
is  there  on  this  subject,  that  the  religion  of  the 
Deist  no  more  precludes  the  blessed  hope  of  sal- 
vation than  that  of  the  Christian  or  of  any  other 
religion. 

We  see  through  different  mediums,  and  in 
our  pursuits  and  experience  are  unlike.  How 
others  have  felt  after  reading  maturely  the  "Age 
of  Reason"  and  the  "Rights  of  Man,"  and  pur- 
suing fairly,  coolly,  and  assiduously  the  subjects 
therein  treated,  I  leave  to  them ;  but  for  myself  I 
80 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

must  say,  these  works  carried  perfect  conviction 
with  them  to  my  mind,  and  the  opinions  they 
contain  are  fully  confirmed  by  much  reading,  by 
long,  honest,  unwearied  investigation  and  ob- 
servation. 

The  best  and  wisest  of  human  beings  both 
male  and  female  that  I  have  known  through  life 
have  been  Deists,  nor  did  anything  in  the  shape 
of  their  recantation  either  in  life  or  death  ever 
come  to  my  knowledge,  nor  can  I  understand 
how  a  real,  serious,  and  long-adopted  belief  can 
be  recanted. 

That  Mr.  Paine's  religious  belief  had  been 
long  established  and  was  with  him  a  deep-rooted 
principle,  may  be  seen  by  his  conduct  when  im- 
prisoned and  extremely  ill  in  the  Luxembourg 
prison  in  1794.* 

Mr.  Bond,  an  English  surgeon  who  was  con- 
fined there  at  the  same  time,  though  by  no  means 
a  friend  to  Mr.  Paine's  political  or  theological 
doctrines,  gave  me  the  following  testimony  of 
Mr.  Paine's  sentiments: 

"Mr.  Paine,  while  hourly  expecting  to  die, 
read  to  me  parts  of  his  'Age  of  Reason';  and 
every  night  when  I  left  him  to  be  separately 
locked  up,  and  expected  not  to  see  him  alive  in 

•See  "Age  of  Reason,"  Part  1. 

81 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

the  morning,  he  always  expressed  his  firm  belief 
in  the  principles  of  that  book,  and  begged  I 
would  tell  the  world  such  were  his  dying  opin- 
ions. He  often  said  that  if  he  lived  he  should 
prosecute  further  that  work,  and  print  it."  Mr. 
Bond's  frequent  observation  when  speaking  of 
Mr.  Paine  was,  that  he  was  the  most  conscien- 
tious man  he  ever  knew. 

While  upon  this  subject,  it  will  probably 
occur  to  the  reader,  as  well  as  to  the  writer,  how 
little  belief  from  inquiry  and  principle  there  is 
in  the  wrorld ;  and  how  much  of tener  religious  pro- 
fession is  adopted  from  education,  form,  pru- 
dence, fear,  and  a  variety  of  other  motives,  than 
from  unprejudiced  inquiry,  a  love  of  truth,  of 
free  discussion,  and  from  entire  conviction. 
Reasoning  thus,  it  may  fairly  be  inferred  that 
men  like  Mr.  Paine,  a  pious  Deist,  of  deep  re- 
search, laborious  inquiry,  and  critical  examina- 
tion, are  the  most  likely  from  disinterested  mo- 
tives to  adopt  opinions,  and  of  course  the  least 
likely  to  relinquish  them. 

Before  I  quit  the  subject  I  give  the  following 
authentic  document,  received  in  a  letter  from 
New  York: 

"Sir:  I  witnessed  a  scene  last  night  which 
occasioned  sensations  only  to  be  felt,  not  to  be 
82 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

described;  the  scene  alluded  to  was  no  less  ex- 
traordinary than  the  beholding  the  well-known 
Thomas  Paine  struggling  to  retain  a  little  longer 
in  connection  his  soul  and  body.  For  near  an 
hour  I  sat  by  the  bedside  of  that  well-known 
character,  to  whom  I  was  introduced  by  one  of 
his  friends.  Could  the  memory  have  retained 
the  suggestions  of  my  mind  in  the  moments  when 
I  was  reviewing  the  pallid  looks  of  him  who  had 
attempted  to  overthrow  kingdoms  and  monar- 
chies, of  him  who  had  astonished  the  world  with 
the  fruits  of  a  vast  mind,  whose  works  have 
caused  a  great  part  of  mankind  to  think  and  feel 
as  they  never  did  before,  such  suggestions  would 
not  be  uninteresting  to  you.  I  could  not  con- 
template the  approaching  dissolution  of  such  a 
man,  see  him  gasping  for  breath,  without  feel- 
ings of  a  peculiar  nature.  Poor  Paine's  body 
has  given  way  before  his  mind,  which  is  yet  firm ; 
mortification  seems  to  have  taken  up  its  dwelling 
in  his  frame,  and  he  will  soon  be  no  more.  With 
respect  to  his  principles  he  will  die  as  he  has  lived ; 
they  are  unaltered. 

"Some  Methodists  went  to  him  a  few  days 
ago  to  endeavor  to  make  a  convert  of  him,  but  he 
would  not  listen  to  their  entreaties." 

Before  I  take  leave  of  my  reader  I  would 

83 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

press  upon  his  mind  the  necessity  of  candor ;  and 
if  he  be  a  Christian  I  must  tell  him  he  will  cease 
to  be  so  the  moment  he  appeals  to  coercion  and 
resorts  to  prosecution  and  to  persecution  in  mat- 
ters of  belief  and  opinion:  such  conduct  his  own 
"New  Testament"  is  decidedly  against.  It  is 
better  not  to  believe  in  a  God  than  to  believe  un- 
worthily of  Him,  and  the  less  we  make  Him  after 
our  image  the  less  we  blaspheme  Him.  Let  in- 
quiry supersede  calumny  and  censure,  and  let  it 
be  ever  remembered  that  those  systems  in  govern- 
ment and  religion  which  will  not  bear  discussion 
and  investigation  are  not  worth  solicitude.  Ig- 
norance is  the  only  original  sin;  spread  informa- 
tion and  knowledge,  and  virtue  and  truth  will 
follow. 

Oppose  argument  to  argument,  reason  to  rea- 
son, opinion  to  opinion,  book  to  book,  truth  must 
prevail;  and  that  which  is  of  divine  origin  will 
bring  itself  through. 

Set  not  attorney-generals  and  human  laws  at 
work,  nor  pay  any  religion  which  boasts  an  heav- 
enly origin  so  bad  a  compliment,  or  libel  its 
founders,  by  endeavoring  to  support  it  by  such 
infamous  means. 

How  paltry,  how  detestable,  is  that  criticism 
which  only  seeks  to  find  out  and  dwell  on  errors 
84 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

and  inaccuracies ;  passing  over  in  silence,  what  is 
grand,  sublime,  and  useful !  How  still  more  pal- 
try, and  detestable,  is  that  disposition,  which 
seeks  only  to  find  out  and  dwell  on  the  defects  and 
foibles  of  character! 

While  Mr.  Paine's  enemies  have  labored,  and 
are  still  laboring,  to  detect  vices  and  errors  in  his 
life  and  manners,  shall  not  his  friends  dwell  on 
the  immense  good  he  has  done  in  public  life,  on 
the  happiness  he  has  created  for  myriads,  in  pri- 
vate? Shall  they  not  point  to  the  abodes  of  de- 
light and  comfort,  where  live  and  flourish  the 
blessings  of  domestic  bliss;  affection's  dear  in- 
tercourses, friendship's  solaces,  and  love's  sa- 
cred en j  oyments  ?  And  there  are  millions  of  such 
abodes  originating  in  his  labors.  Why  seek  oc- 
casion, surly  critics  and  detractors!  to  maltreat 
and  misrepresent  Mr.  Paine?  He  was  mild, 
unoffending,  sincere,  gentle,  humble,  and  unas- 
suming; his  talents  were  soaring,  acute,  profound, 
extensive,  and  original;  and  he  possessed  that 
charity,  which  covers  a  multitude  of  sins. 


85 


ERSKINE'S    DEFENSE     OF    PAINE* 

GENTLEMEN  of  the  Jury.— The  Attor- 
ney-general, in  that  part  of  his  address 
which  referred  to  a  letter  supposed  to  have  been 
written  to  him  from  France,  exhibited  signs  of 
strong  sensibility  and  emotion.  I  do  not,  I  am 
sure,  charge  him  with  acting  a  part  to  seduce  you ; 
on  the  contrary,  I  am  persuaded,  from  my  own 
feelings,  and  from  my  acquaintance  with  my 
friend  from  our  childhood  upwards,  that  he  ex- 
pressed himself  as  he  felt. 

But — gentlemen,  if  he  felt  those  painful  em- 
barrassments, you  may  imagine  what  mine  must 
be:  he  can  only  feel  for  the  august  character 
whom  he  represents  in  this  place  as  a  subject 
for  his  Sovereign,  too  far  removed  by  custom 
from  the  intercourses  which  generate  affections  to 
produce  any  other  sentiments  than  those  that 
flow  from  a  relation  common  to  us  all :  but  it  will 
be  remembered  that  I  stand  in  the  same  relationf 
toward  another  great  person  more  deeply  impli- 
cated by  this  supposed  letter ;  who,  not  restrained 
from  the  cultivation  of  personal  attachments  by 

*Lord  Erskine's  Speech  in  behalf  of  Thomas  Paine,  Court  of 
King's  Bench,  December  18,  1792.— Ed. 

fMr.  Erskine  was  then  Attorney-general  to  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
—Ed.  j 

86 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

those  qualifications  which  must  always  secure 
them,  has  exalted  my  duty  to  a  prince  into  a 
warm  and  honest  affection  between  man  and  man. 

Thus  circumstanced,  I  certainly  should  have 
been  glad  to  have  had  an  earlier  opportunity  of 
knowing  correctly  the  contents  of  this  letter,  and 
whether  (which  I  positively  deny)  it  proceeded 
from  the  defendant.  Coming  thus  suddenly 
upon  us,  I  see  but  too  plainly  the  impression  it 
has  made  upon  you,  who  are  to  try  the  cause,  and 
I  feel  its  weight  upon  myself,  who  am  to  conduct 
it ;  but  this  shall  neither  detach  me  from  my  duty, 
nor  enervate  me  (if  I  can  help  it)  in  the  dis- 
charge of  it. 

If  the  Attorney-general  be  well  founded  in 
the  commentaries  he  has  made  to  you  upon  the 
book  which  he  prosecutes;  if  he  be  warranted  by 
the  law  of  England  in  repressing  its  circulation, 
from  the  illegal  and  dangerous  matters  contained 
in  it ;  if  that  suppression  be,  as  he  avows  it,  and  as 
in  common  sense  it  must  be,  the  sole  object  of 
the  prosecution,  the  public  has  great  reason  to 
lament  that  this  letter  should  have  been  at  all 
brought  into  the  service  of  the  cause.  It  is  no 
part  of  the  charge  upon  the  record;  it  had  no 
existence  for  months  after  the  work  was  composed 
and  published ;  it  was  not  written  by  the  def end- 

87 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

ant,  if  written  by  him  at  all,  till  after  he  had  been 
in  a  manner  insultingly  expelled  from  the  coun- 
try by  the  influence  of  Government;  it  was  not 
even  written  till  he  had  become  the  subject  of 
another  country.  It  cannot,  therefore,  by  any 
fair  inference,  decipher  the  mind  of  the  author 
when  he  composed  his  work;  still  less  can  it  af- 
fect the  construction  of  the  language  in  which  it 
is  written. 

The  introduction  of  this  letter  at  all  is,  there- 
fore, not  only  a  departure  from  the  charge,  but  a 
dereliction  of  the  object  of  the  prosecution,  which 
is  to  condemn  the  book:  since,  if  the  condemnation 
of  the  author  is  to  be  obtained,  not  by  the  work 
itself \  but  by  collateral  matter,  not  even  existing 
when  it  was  written,  nor  known  to  its  various  pub- 
lishers throughout  the  kingdom,  how  can  a  ver- 
dict upon  such  grounds  condemn  the  work,  or 
criminate  other  publishers,  strangers  to  the  col- 
lateral matter  on  which  the  conviction  may  be 
obtained  to-day? 

I  maintain,  therefore,  upon  every  principle  of 
sound  policy,  as  it  affects  the  interests  of  the 
Crown,  and  upon  every  rule  of  justice,  as  it  af- 
fects the  author  of  "The  Rights  of  Man,"  that 
the  letter  should  be  wholly  dismissed  from  your 
consideration. 
88 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

Gentlemen,  the  Attorney-general  has  thought 
it  necessary  to  inform  you  that  a  rumor  had  been 
spread,  and  had  reached  his  ears,  that  he  only 
carried  on  the  prosecution  as  a  public  prosecutor, 
but  without  the  concurrence  of  his  own  judg- 
ment; and,  therefore,  to  add  the  just  weight  of 
his  private  character  to  his  public  duty,  and  to 
repel  what  he  thinks  a  calumny,  he  tells  you  that 
he  should  have  deserved  to  have  been  driven  from 
society,  if  he  had  not  arraigned  the  work  and  the 
author  before  you. 

Here,  too,  we  stand  in  situations  very  differ- 
ent. I  have  no  doubt  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
rumor,  and  of  its  having  reached  his  ears,  be- 
cause he  says  so;  but  for  the  narrow  circle  in 
which  any  rumor,  personally  implicating  my 
learned  friend's  character,  has  extended,  I  might 
appeal  to  the  multitudes  who  surround  us,  and 
ask,  which  of  them  all,  except  the  few  connected 
in  office  with  the  Crown,  ever  heard  of  its  ex- 
istence? 

But  with  regard  to  myself,  every  man  within 
hearing  at  this  moment — nay,  the  whole  people 
of  England,  have  been  witnesses  to  the  calumni- 
ous clamor  that,  by  every  art,  has  been  raised  and 
kept  up  against  me:  in  every  place  where  busi- 
ness or  pleasure  collect  the  public  together,  day 

1-8  89 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS   PAINE 

after  day  my  name  and  character  have  been  the 
topics  of  injurious  reflection.  And  for  what? 
Only  for  not  having  shrunk  from  the  discharge  of 
a  duty  which  no  personal  advantage  recommend- 
ed, and  which  a  thousand  difficulties  repelled. 

But,  Gentlemen,  I  have  no  complaint  to 
make,  either  against  the  printers  of  these  libels, 
or  even  against  their  authors :  the  greater  part  of 
them,  hurried  perhaps  away  by  honest  prejudices, 
may  have  believed  they  were  serving  their  coun- 
try by  rendering  me  the  object  of  its  suspicions 
and  contempt;  and  if  there  has  been  among 
them  others  who  have  mixed  in  it  from  personal 
malice  and  unkindness,  I  thank  God  I  can  for- 
give them  also. 

Little,  indeed,  did  they  know  me,  who  thought 
that  such  calumnies  would  influence  my  conduct. 
I  will  forever,  at  all  hazards,  assert  the  dignity, 
independence,  and  integrity  of  the  English  Bar, 
without  which  impartial  justice,  the  most  valu- 
able part  of  the  English  Constitution,  can  have 
no  existence. 

From  the  moment  that  any  advocate  can  be 
permitted  to  say  that  he  will  or  will  not  stand  be- 
tween the  Crown  and  the  subject  in  the  court 
where  he  daily  sits  to  practise,  from  that  moment 
the  liberties  of  England  are  at  an  end. 
90 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

If  the  advocate  refuses  to  defend,  from  what 
he  may  think  of  the  charge  or  of  the  defense  he 
assumes,  the  character  of  the  judge;  nay,  he  as- 
sumes it  before  the  hour  of  judgment;  and,  in 
proportion  to  his  rank  and  reputation,  puts  the 
heavy  influence  of,  perhaps,  a  mistaken  opinion 
into  the  scale  against  the  accused,  in  whose  favor 
the  benevolent  principle  of  English  law  makes  all 
presumptions,  and  which  commands  the  very 
judge  to  be  his  counsel. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  now  my  duty  to  address  my- 
self without  disgression  to  the  defense. 

The  first  thing  which  presents  itself  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  any  subject  is  to  state  distinctly  and 
with  precision,  what  the  question  is,  and,  where 
prejudice  and  misrepresentation  have  been  ex- 
erted, to  distinguish  it  accurately  from  what  it  is 
not.  The  question,  then,  is  not  whether  the  Con- 
stitution of  our  fathers — under  which  we  live, 
under  which  I  present  myself  before  you,  and 
under  which  alone  you  have  any  jurisdiction  to 
hear  me — be  or  be  not  preferable  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  America  or  France,  or  any  other  human 
constitution.  For  upon  what  principle  can  a 
court,  constituted  by  the  authority  of  any  govern- 
ment, and  administering  a  positive  system  of  law 
under  it,  pronounce  a  decision  against  the  Con- 

91 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

stitution  which  creates  its  authority,  or  the  rule 
of  action  which  its  jurisdiction  is  to  enforce? 
The  common  sense  of  the  most  uninformed  per- 
son must  revolt  at  such  an  absurd  supposition. 

I  have  no  difficulty,  therefore,  in  admitting 
that,  if  by  accident  some  or  all  of  you  were  alien- 
ated in  opinion  and  affection  from  the  forms  and 
principles  of  the  English  Government,  and  were 
impressed  with  the  value  of  that  unmixed  repre- 
sentative constitution  which  this  work  recom- 
mends and  inculcates,  you  could  not  on  that  ac- 
count acquit  the  defendant.  Nay,  to  speak  out 
plainly,  I  freely  admit  that  even  if  you  were 
avowed  enemies  to  monarchy,  and  devoted  to  re- 
publicanism, you  would  be  nevertheless  bound  by 
your  oaths,  as  a  jury  sworn  to  administer  justice 
according  to  the  English  law,  to  convict  the 
author  of  the  "Rights  of  Man,"  if  it  were 
brought  home  to  your  consciences  that  he  had  ex- 
ceeded those  widely  extended  bounds  which  the 
ancient  wisdom  and  liberal  policy  of  the  English 
Constitution  have  allotted  to  the  range  of  a  free 
press. 

I  freely  concede  this,  because  you  have  no  ju- 
risdiction to  judge  either  the  author  or  the  work 
by  any  rule  but  that  of  English  law,  which  is  the 
source  of  your  authority.  But  having  made  this 
92 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

large  concession,  it  follows,  by  a  consequence  so 
inevitable  as  to  be  invulnerable  to  all  argument 
or  artifice,  that  if,  on  the  other  hand,  you  should 
be  impressed  (which  I  know  you  to  be)  not  only 
with  a  dutiful  regard,  but  with  an  enthusiasm,  for 
the  whole  form  and  substance  of  your  own  Gov- 
ernment; and  though  you  should  think  that  this 
work,  in  its  circulation  among  classes  of  men  un- 
equal to  political  researches,  may  tend  to  alienate 
opinions;  still  you  cannot,  upon  such  grounds *, 
without  a  similar  breach  of  duty,  convict  the  de- 
fendant of  a  libel — unless  he  has  clearly  stepped 
beyond  that  extended  range  of  communication 
which  the  same  ancient  wisdom  and  liberal  policy 
of  the  British  Constitution  has  allotted  for  the 
liberty  of  the  press. 

Gentlemen,  I  admit,  with  the  Attorney-gen- 
eral, that  in  every  case  where  a  court  has  to  esti- 
mate the  quality  of  a  writing,  the  mind  and  inten- 
tion of  the  writer  must  be  taken  into  the  account 
— the  bona  or  mala  fides,  as  lawyers  express  it, 
must  be  examined — for  a  writing  may  undoubt- 
edly proceed  from  a  motive,  and  be  directed  to  a 
purpose,  not  to  be  deciphered  by  the  mere  con- 
struction of  the  thing  written.  But  wherever  a 
writing  is  arraigned  as  seditious  or  slanderous, 
not  upon  its  ordinary  construction  in  language, 

93 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

nor  from  the  necessary  consequences  of  its  pub- 
lication, under  any  circumstances,  and  at  all 
times,  but  that  the  criminality  springs  from  some 
extrinsic  matter,  not  visible  upon  the  page  itself, 
nor  universally  operative,  but  capable  only  of 
being  connected  with  it  by  evidence,  so  as  to  de- 
monstrate the  effect  of  the  publication  and  the 
design  of  the  publisher;  such  a  writing,  libelous 
per  se,  cannot  be  arraigned  as  the  author's  work 
is  arraigned  upon  the  record  before  the  court. 

I  maintain,  without  the  hazard  of  contradic- 
tion, that  the  law  of  England  positively  requires, 
for  the  security  of  the  subject,  that  every  charge 
of  a  libel  complicated  with  extrinsic  facts  and 
circumstances,  dehors  the  writing,  must  appear 
literally  upon  the  record  by  an  averment  of  such 
extrinsic  facts  and  circumstances,  that  the  de- 
fendant may  know  what  crime  he  is  called  upon 
to  answer,  and  how  to  stand  upon  his  defense. 

What  crime  is  it  that  the  defendant  comes  to 
answer  for  to-day? — what  is  the  notice  that  I, 
who  am  his  counsel,  have  from  this  parchment  of 
the  crime  alleged  against  him? 

I  come  to  defend  his  having  written  this  book. 
The  record  states  nothing  else:  the  general 
charge  of  sedition  in  the  introduction  is  notorious- 
ly paper  and  pack-thread ;  because  the  innuendoes 
94 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

cannot  enlarge  the  sense  or  natural  construction 
of  the  text.  The  record  does  not  state  any  one 
extrinsic  fact  or  circumstance  to  render  the  work 
criminal  at  one  time  more  than  another;  it  states 
no  peculiarity  of  time  or  season  or  intention,  not 
provable  from  the  writing  itself,  which  is  the 
naked  charge  upon  record.  There  is  nothing, 
therefore,  which  gives  you  any  jurisdiction  be- 
yond the  construction  of  the  work  itself;  and  you 
cannot  be  justified  in  finding  it  criminal  because 
published  at  this  time,  unless  it  would  have  been 
a  criminal  publication  under  any  circumstances, 
or  at  any  other  time. 

The  law  of  England,  then,  both  in  its  forms 
and  substance,  being  the  only  rule  by  which  the 
author  or  the  work  can  be  justified  or  condemned, 
and  the  charge  upon  the  record  being  the  naked 
charge  of  a  libel,  the  cause  resolves  itself  into  a 
question  of  the  deepest  importance  to  us  all — 
the  nature  and  extent  of  the  liberty  of  the 
English  press. 

But  before  I  enter  upon  it,  I  wish  to  fulfil  a 
duty  to  the  defendant,  which,  if  I  do  not  deceive 
myself,  is  at  this  moment  peculiarly  necessary  to 
his  impartial  trial.  If  an  advocate  entertains 
sentiments  injurious  to  the  defense  he  is  engaged 
in,  he  is  not  only  justified,  but  bound  in  duty,  to 

95 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

conceal  them;  so,  on  the  other  hand,  if  his  own 
genuine  sentiments,  or  anything  connected  with 
his  character  or  situation,  can  add  strength  to  his 
professional  assistance,  he  is  bound  to  throw  them 
into  the  scale.  In  addressing  myself,  therefore, 
to  gentlemen  not  only  zealous  for  the  honor  of 
English  Government,  but  visibly  indignant  at 
any  attack  upon  its  principles,  and  who  would, 
perhaps,  be  impatient  of  arguments  from  a  sus- 
pected quarter,  I  give  my  client  the  benefit  of  de- 
claring that  I  am,  and  ever  have  been,  attached 
to  the  genuine  principles  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment; and  that,  however  the  Court  or  you  may 
reject  the  application,  I  defend  him  upon  princi- 
ples not  only  consistent  with  its  permanence  and 
security,  but  without  the  establishment  of  which 
it  never  could  have  had  an  existence. 

The  proposition  which  I  mean  to  maintain  as 
the  basis  of  the  liberty  of  the  press,  and  without 
which  it  is  an  empty  sound,  is  this:  that  every 
man,  not  intending  to  mislead,  but  seeking  to 
enlighten  others  with  what  his  own  reason  and 
conscience,  however  erroneously,  have  dictated 
to  him  as  truth,  may  address  himself  to  the  uni- 
versal reason  of  a  whole  nation,  either  upon  the 
subject  of  governments  in  general,  or  upon  that 
of  our  own  particular  country :  that  he  may  ana- 
96 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

lyze  the  principles  of  its  Constitution,  point  out 
its  errors  and  defects,  examine  and  publish  its 
corruptions,  warn  his  fellow-citizens  against  their 
ruinous  consequences,  and  exert  his  whole  facul- 
ties in  pointing  out  the  most  advantageous 
changes  in  establishments  which  he  considers  to 
be  radically  defective,  or  sliding  from  their  object 
by  abuse. 

All  this  every  subject  of  this  country  has  a 
right  to  do,  if  he  contemplates  only  what  he 
thinks  would  be  for  its  advantage,  and  but  seeks 
to  change  the  public  mind  by  the  conviction  which 
flows  from  reasonings  dictated  by  conscience. 

If,  indeed,  he  writes  what  he  does  not  think; 
if,  contemplating  the  misery  of  others,  he  wick- 
edly condemns  what  his  own  understanding  ap- 
proves; or,  even  admitting  his  real  disgust 
against  the  Government  or  its  corruptions,  if  he 
calumniates  living  magistrates,  or  holds  out  to 
individuals  that  they  have  a  right  to  run  before 
the  public  mind  in  their  conduct;  that  they  may 
oppose  by  contumacy  or  force  what  private  rea- 
son only  disapproves;  that  they  may  disobey  the 
law,  because  their  judgment  condemns  it;  or  re- 
sist the  public  will,  because  they  honestly  wish 
to  change  it — he  is  then  a  criminal  upon  every 
principle  of  rational  policy,  as  well  as  upon  the 

97 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

immemorial  precedents  of  English  justice;  be- 
cause such  a  person  seeks  to  disunite  individuals 
from  their  duty  to  the  whole,  and  excites  to  overt 
acts  of  misconduct  in  a  part  of  the  community, 
instead  of  endeavoring  to  change,  by  the  impulse 
of  reason,  that  universal  assent  which,  in  this 
and  in  every  country,  constitutes  the  law  for  all. 

I  have,  therefore,  no  difficulty  in  admitting 
that  if,  upon  an  attentive  perusal  of  this  work, 
it  shall  be  found  that  the  defendant  has  promul- 
gated any  doctrines  which  excite  individuals  to 
withdraw  from  their  subjection  to  the  law  by 
which  the  whole  nation  consents  to  be  governed ; 
if  his  book  shall  be  found  to  have  warranted  or 
excited  that  unfortunate  criminal  who  appeared 
here  yesterday  to  endeavor  to  relieve  himself  from 
imprisonment  by  the  destruction  of  a  prison,  or 
dictated  to  him  the  language  of  defiance  which 
ran  through  the  whole  of  his  defense ;  if  through- 
out the  work  there  shall  be  found  any  syllable  or 
letter  which  strikes  at  the  security  of  property, 
or  which  hints  that  anything  less  than  the  whole 
nation  can  constitute  the  law,  or  that  the  law,  be 
it  what  it  may,  is  not  the  inexorable  rule  of  action 
for  every  individual,  I  willingly  yield  him  up  to 
the  justice  of  the  Court. 

Gentlemen,  I  say,  in  the  name  of  Thomas 
98 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

Paine,  and  in  his  words  as  author  of  the  "  Rights 
of  Man,"  as  written  in  the  very  volume  that  is 
charged  with  seeking  the  destruction  of  property: 

"  The  end  of  all  political  associations  is  the 
preservation  of  the  rights  of  man,  which  rights 
are  liberty,  property,  and  security;  that  the  na- 
tion is  the  source  of  all  sovereignty  derived  from 
it;  the  right  of  property  being  secured  and  in- 
violable, no  one  ought  to  be  deprived  of  it,  except 
in  cases  of  evident  public  necessity,  legally  ascer- 
tained, and  on  condition  of  a  previous  just  in- 
demnity." 

These  are  undoubtedly  the  rights  of  man — 
the  rights  for  which  all  governments  are  estab- 
lished— and  the  only  rights  Mr.  Paine  contends 
for;  but  which  he  thinks  (no  matter  whether 
right  or  wrong)  are  better  to  be  secured  by  a 
republican  constitution  than  by  the  forms  of 
the  English  Government.  He  instructs  me  to 
admit  that,  when  government  is  once  constituted, 
no  individual,  without  rebellion,  can  withdraw 
their  obedience  from  it;  that  all  attempts  to  ex- 
cite them  to  it  are  highly  criminal,  for  the  most 
obvious  reasons  of  policy  and  justice;  that  noth- 
ing short  of  the  will  of  a  whole  people  can 
change  or  affect  the  rule  by  which  a  nation  is  to  be 
governed;  and  that  no  private  opinion,  however 

99 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

honestly  inimical  to  the  forms  or  substance  of  the 
law,  can  justify  resistance  to  its  authority,  while  it 
remains  in  force.  The  author  of  the  "  Rights  of 
Man"  not  only  admits  the  truth  of  all  this  doc- 
trine, but  he  consents  to  be  convicted,  and  I  also 
consent  for  him,  unless  his  work  shall  be  found 
studiously  and  painfully  to  inculcate  those  great 
principles  of  government  which  it  is  charged  to 
have  been  written  to  destroy. 

Let  me  not,  therefore,  be  suspected  to  be  con- 
tending that  it  is  lawful  to  write  a  book  pointing 
out  defects  in  the  English  Government,  and  ex- 
citing individuals  to  destroy  its  sanctions,  and  to 
refuse  obedience.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  do 
contend  that  it  is  lawful  to  address  the  English 
nation  on  these  momentous  subjects;  for  had  it 
not  been  for  this  inalienable  right  (thanks  be  to 
God  and  our  fathers  for  establishing  it!)  how 
should  we  have  had  this  Constitution  which  we  so 
loudly  boast  of?  If,  in  the  march  of  the  human 
mind,  no  man  could  have  gone  before  the  estab- 
lishments of  the  time  he  lived  in,  how  could  our 
establishment,  by  reiterated  changes,  have  be- 
come what  it  is  ?  If  no  man  could  have  awakened 
the  public  mind  to  errors  and  abuses  in  our  Gov- 
ernment, how  could  it  have  passed  on  from  stage 
to  stage,  through  reformation  and  revolution,  so 
100 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

as  to  have  arrived  from  barbarism  to  such  a  pitch 
of  happiness  and  perfection,  that  the  Attorney- 
general  considers  it  as  profanation  to  touch  it 
further,  or  to  look  for  any  further  amendment? 

In  this  manner  power  has  reasoned  in  every 
age ;  government,  in  its  own  estimation,,  has  been 
at  all  times  a  system  of  perfection;  but  a  free 
press  has  examined  and  detected  its  errors,  and 
the  people  have  from  time  to  time  reformed  them. 
This  freedom  has  alone  made  our  Government 
what  it  is;  this  freedom  alone  can  preserve  it; 
and  therefore,  under  the  banners  of  that  freedom, 
to-day  I  stand  up  to  defend  Thomas  Paine. 
But  how,  alas!  shall  this  task  be  accomplished? 
How  may  I  expect  from  you  what  human  nature 
has  not  made  man  for  the  performance  of  ?  How 
am  I  to  address  your  reasons,  or  ask  them  to 
pause  amidst  the  torrent  of  prejudice  which  has 
hurried  away  the  public  mind  on  the  subject 
you  are  to  judge. 

Was  any  Englishman  ever  so  brought  as  a 
criminal  before  an  English  court  of  justice? 

If  I  were  to  ask  you,  Gentlemen  of  the  jury, 
what  is  the  choicest  fruit  that  grows  upon  the  tree 
of  English  liberty,  you  would  answer,  security 
under  the  law.  If  I  were  to  ask  the  whole  peo- 
ple of  England  the  return  they  looked  for  at  the 

101 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

hands  of  Government  for  the  burdens  under 
which  they  bend  to  support  it,  I  should  still  be 
answered,  security  under  the  law  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  an  impartial  administration  of  justice. 
So  sacred,  therefore,  has  the  freedom  of  trial 
been  ever  held  in  England;  so  anxiously  does  jus- 
tice guard  against  every  possible  bias  in  her  path, 
that  if  the  public  mind  has  been  locally  agitated 
upon  any  subject  in  judgment,  the  forum  has 
either  been  changed,  or  the  trial  postponed.  The 
circulation  of  any  paper  that  brings,  or  can  be 
supposed  to  bring,  prejudice,  or  even  well- 
founded  knowledge,  within  the  reach  of  a  British 
tribunal,  on  the  spur  of  an  occasion,  is  not  only 
highly  criminal,  but  defeats  itself,  by  leading  to 
put  off  the  trial  which  its  object  was  to  pervert. 
On  this  principle,  the  noble  and  learned  judge 
will  permit  me  to  remind  him  that  on  the  trial 
of  the  Dean  of  St.  Asaph  for  a  libel,  or  rather 
when  he  was  brought  to  trial,  the  circulation  of 
books  by  a  society  favorable  to  his  defense  was 
held  by  His  Lordship,  as  Chief -justice  of  Ches- 
ter, to  be  a  reason  for  not  trying  the  cause;  al- 
though they  contained  no  matter  relative  to  the 
Dean,  nor  to  the  object  of  his  trial;  being  only 
extracts  from  ancient  authors  of  high  reputation 
on  the  general  rights  of  juries  to  consider  the 
102 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

innocence  as  well  as  the  guilt  of  the  accused ;  yet 
still,  as  the  recollection  of  these  rights  was  pressed 
forward  with  a  view  to  affect  the  proceedings, 
the  proceedings  were  postponed. 

Is  the  defendant,  then,  to  be  the  only  ex- 
ception to  these  admirable  provisions?  Is  the 
English  law  to  judge  him,  stripped  of  the  armor 
with  which  its  universal  justice  encircles  all 
others?  Shall  we,  in  the  very  act  of  judging  him 
for  detracting  from  the  English  Government, 
furnish  him  with  ample  matter  for  just  reproba- 
tion, instead  of  detraction?  Has  not  his  cause 
been  prejudged  through  a  thousand  channels? 
Has  not  the  work  before  you  been  daily  and  pub- 
licly reviled,  and  his  person  held  up  to  derision 
and  reproach?  Has  not  the  public  mind  been 
excited  by  crying  down  the  very  phrase  and  idea 
of  the  "  Rights  of  Man  "?  Nay,  have  not  asso- 
ciations of  gentlemen — I  speak  it  with  regret, 
because  I  am  persuaded,  from  what  I  know  of 
some  of  them,  that  they,  amongst  them  at  least, 
thought  they  were  serving  the  public — yet  have 
they  not,  in  utter  contempt  and  ignorance  of  that 
Constitution  of  which  they  declare  themselves  to 
be  the  guardians,  published  the  grossest  attacks 
upon  the  defendant? 

Have  they  not,  even  while  the  cause  has  been 

103 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

standing  here  for  immediate  trial,  published  a 
direct  protest  against  the  very  work  now  before 
you ;  advertising  in  the  same  paper,  though  under 
the  general  description  of  seditious  libels,  a  re- 
ward on  the  conviction  of  any  person  who  should 
dare  to  sell  the  book  itself,  to  which  their  own 
publication  was  an  answer? 

The  Attorney-general  has  spoken  of  a  forced 
circulation  of  this  work ;  but  how  have  these  pre- 
judging papers  been  circulated?  We  all  know 
how.  They  have  been  thrown  into  our  carriages 
in  every  street;  they  have  met  us  at  every  turn- 
pike; and  they  lie  in  the  areas  of  all  our  houses. 
To  complete  the  triumph  of  prejudice,  that  high 
tribunal  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to  be  a  member 
(my  learned  friends  know  what  I  say  to  be  true) 
has  been  drawn  into  this  vortex  of  slander;  and 
some  of  its  members — I  must  not  speak  of  the 
House  itself — have  thrown  the  weight  of  their 
stations  into  the  same  scale.  By  all  these  means 
I  maintain  that  this  cause  has  been  prejudged. 

It  may  be  said  that  I  have  made  no  motion 
to  put  off  the  trial  for  these  causes,  and  that 
courts  of  themselves  take  no  cognizance  of  what 
passes  elsewhere,  without  facts  laid  before  them. 
Gentlemen,  I  know  that  I  should  have  had  equal 
justice  from  the  Court,  if  I  had  brought  myself 
104 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

within  the  rule.  But  when  should  I  have  been 
better  in  the  present  aspect  of  things?  And  I 
only  remind  you,  therefore,  of  all  these  hardships, 
that  you  may  recollect  that  your  judgment  is  to 
proceed  upon  that  alone  which  meets  you  here, 
upon  the  evidence  in  the  cause,  and  not  upon  sug- 
gestions destructive  of  every  principle  of  justice. 

Having  disposed  of  these  foreign  prejudices, 
I  hope  you  will  as  little  regard  some  arguments 
that  have  been  offered  to  you  in  court.  The 
letter  which  has  been  so  repeatedly  pressed  upon 
you  ought  to  be  dismissed  even  from  your  recol- 
lection. I  have  already  put  it  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, as  having  been  written  long  subsequent  to 
the  book,  and  as  being  a  libel  on  the  King,  which 
no  part  of  the  information  charges,  and  which 
may  hereafter  be  prosecuted  as  a  distinct  offense. 
I  consider  that  letter,  besides,  and  indeed  have  al- 
ways heard  it  treated,  as  a  forgery,  contrived  to 
injure  the  merits  of  the  cause,  and  embarrass  me 
personally  in  its  defense.  I  have  a  right  so  to 
consider  it,  because  it  is  unsupported  by  anything 
similar  at  an  earlier  period. 

The  defendant's  whole  deportment,  previous 
to  the  publication,  has  been  wholly  unexception- 
able: he  properly  desired  to  be  given  up  as  the 
author  of  the  book  if  any  inquiry  should  take 
1-10  105 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

place  concerning  it :  and  he  is  not  affected  in  evi- 
dence, either  directly  or  indirectly,  with  any  ille- 
gal or  suspicious  conduct;  not  even  with  having 
uttered  an  indiscreet  or  taunting  expression,  nor 
with  any  one  matter  or  thing  inconsistent  with 
the  duty  of  the  best  subject  in  England.  His 
opinions  indeed  were  adverse  to  our  system;  but 
I  maintain  that  opinion  is  free,  and  that  conduct 
alone  is  amenable  to  the  law. 

You  are  next  desired  to  judge  of  the  author's 
mind  and  intention  by  the  modes  and  extent  of 
the  circulation  of  his  work. 

The  first  part  of  the  "  Rights  of  Man  "  Mr. 
Attorney-general  tells  you  he  did  not  prosecute, 
although  it  was  in  circulation  through  the  country 
for  a  year  and  a  half  together,  because  it  seems  it 
circulated  only  amongst  what  he  styles  the  judi- 
cious part  of  the  public,  who  possessed  in  their 
capacities  and  experience  an  antidote  to  the 
poison;  but  that,  with  regard  to  the  second  part 
now  before  you,  its  circulation  had  been  forced 
into  every  corner  of  society ;  had  been  printed  and 
reprinted  for  cheapness  even  upon  whited-brown 
paper,  and  had  crept  into  the  very  nurseries  of 
children  as  a  wrapper  for  their  sweetmeats. 

In  answer  to  this  statement,  which  after  all 
stands  only  upon  Mr.  Attorney-general's  own 
106 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

assertion,  unsupported  by  any  kind  of  proof  (no 
witness  having  proved  the  author's  personal  in- 
terference with  the  sale),  I  still  maintain  that  if 
he  had  the  most  anxiously  promoted  it,  the  ques- 
tion would  remain  exactly  the  same:  the  question 
would  still  be,  whether  at  the  time  when  Paine 
composed  his  work,  and  promoted  the  most  ex- 
tensive purchase  of  it,  he  believed  or  disbelieved 
what  he  had  written? — and  whether  he  contem- 
plated the  happiness  or  the  misery  of  the  English 
nation,  to  which  it  is  addressed?  And  whichever 
of  these  intentions  may  be  evidenced  to  your 
judgments  upon  reading  the  book  itself,  I  con- 
fess I  am  utterly  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  how  a 
writer  can  be  supposed  to  mean  something  differ- 
ent from  what  he  has  written,  by  proof  of  an 
anxiety  (common,  I  believe,  to  all  authors)  that 
his  work  should  be  generally  read. 

Remember,  I  am  not  asking  your  opinions  of 
the  doctrines  themselves — you  have  given  them 
already  pretty  visibly  since  I  began  to  address 
you — but  I  shall  appeal  not  only  to  you,  but  to 
those  who,  without  our  leave,  will  hereafter 
judge,  and  without  appeal,  of  all  that  we  are  do- 
ing to-day — whether,  upon  the  matter  which  I 
hasten  to  lay  before  you,  you  can  refuse  to  pro- 
nounce that  from  his  education — from  the  acci- 

107 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

dents  and  habits  of  his  life — from  the  time  and 
occasion  of  the  publication — from  the  circum- 
stances attending  it — and  from  every  line  and  let- 
ter of  the  work  itself,  and  from  all  his  other  wri- 
tings, his  conscience  and  understanding  (no 
matter  whether  erroneously  or  not)  were  deeply 
and  solemnly  impressed  with  the  matters  con- 
tained in  his  book? — that  he  addressed  it  to  the 
reason  of  the  nation  at  large,  and  not  to  the  pas- 
sions of  individuals? — and  that,  in  the  issue  of  its 
influence,  he  contemplated  only  what  appeared 
to  him  (though  it  may  not  to  us)  to  be  the  inter- 
est and  happiness  of  England,  and  of  the  whole 
human  race? 

In  drawing  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  con- 
clusions, the  book  stands  first  in  order,  and  it 
shall  now  speak  for  itself. 

Gentlemen,  the  whole  of  it  is  in  evidence  be- 
fore you;  the  particular  parts  arraigned  having 
only  been  read  by  my  consent,  upon  the  presump- 
tion that,  on  retiring  from  the  court,  you  would 
carefully  compare  them  with  the  context,  and 
all  the  parts  with  the  whole  viewed  together. 

You  cannot  indeed  do  justice  without  it.  The 

most  common  letter,  even  in  the  ordinary  course 

of  business,  cannot  be  read  in  a  cause  to  prove  an 

obligation    for    twenty    shillings    without    the 

108 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

.whole  being  read,  that  the  writer's  meaning  may- 
be seen  without  deception.  But  in  a  criminal 
charge,  comprehending  only  four  pages  and  a 
half,  out  of  a  work  containing  nearly  two  hun- 
dred, you  cannot,  with  even  the  appearance  of 
common  decency,  pronounce  a  judgment  without 
the  most  deliberate  and  cautious  comparison.  I 
observe  that  the  noble  and  learned  judge  confirms 
me  in  this  observation. 

If  any  given  part  of  a  work  be  legally  explan- 
atory of  every  other  part  of  it,  the  preface,  a  for- 
tiori, is  the  most  material ;  because  the  preface  is 
the  author's  own  key  to  his  writing:  it  is  there 
that  he  takes  the  reader  by  the  hand  and  intro- 
duces him  to  his  subject;  it  is  there  that  the  spirit 
and  intention  of  the  whole  is  laid  before  him  by 
way  of  prologue.  A  preface  is  meant  by  the 
author  as  a  clue  to  ignorant  or  careless  readers; 
the  author  says  by  it,  to  every  man  who  chooses 
to  begin  where  he  ought,  Look  at  my  plan — 
attend  to  my  distinctions — mark  the  purpose  and 
limitations  of  the  matter  I  lay  before  you. 

Let,  then,  the  calumniators  of  Thomas  Paine 
now  attend  to  his  preface,  where,  to  leave  no  ex- 
cuse for  ignorance  or  misrepresentation,  he  ex- 
presses himself  thus: 

109 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

I  have  differed  from  some  professional  gentlemen 
on  the  subject  of  prosecutions,  and  I  since  find  they  are 
falling  into  my  opinion,  which  I  will  here  state  as  fully 
but  as  concisely  as  I  can. 

I  will  first  put  a  case  with  respect  to  any  law,  and 
then  compare  it  with  a  government,  or  with  what  in 
England  is  or  has  been  called  a  Constitution. 

It  would  be  an  act  of  despotism,  or  what  in  Eng- 
land is  called  arbitrary  power,  to  make  a  law  to  pro- 
hibit investigating  the  principles,  good  or  bad,  on  which 
such  a  law,  or  any  other,  is  founded. 

If  a  law  be  bad,  it  is  one  thing  to  oppose  the  prac- 
tise of  it,  but  it  is  quite  a  different  thing  to  expose  its 
errors,  to  reason  on  its  defects,  and  to  show  cause  why  it 
should  be  repealed,  or  why  another  ought  to  be  sub- 
stituted in  its  place.  I  have  always  held  it  an  opinion 
(making  it  also  my  practise)  that  it  is  better  to  obey  a 
bad  law,  making  use  at  the  same  time  of  every  argument 
to  show  its  errors  and  procure  its  repeal,  than  forcibly 
to  violate  it;  because  the  precedent  of  breaking  a  bad 
law  might  weaken  the  force,  and  lead  to  discretionary 
violation,  of  those  which  are  good. 

The  case  is  the  same  with  principles  and  forms  of 
governments,  or  to  what  are  called  constitutions,  and  the 
parts  of  which  they  are  composed. 

It  is  for  the  good  of  nations,  and  not  for  the  emolu- 
ment or  aggrandizement  of  particular  individuals,  that 
government  ought  to  be  established,  and  that  mankind 
are  at  the  expense  of  supporting  it.  The  defects  of 
every  government  and  constitution,  both  as  to  principle 
and  form,  must,  on  a  parity  of  reasoning,  be  as  open  to 
discussion  as  the  defects  of  a  law,  and  it  is  a  duty  which 
every  man  owes  to  society  to  point  them  out.     When 

110 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

those  defects  and  the  means  of  remedying  them  are  gen- 
erally seen  by  a  nation,  that  nation  will  reform  its 
government  or  its  constitution  in  the  one  case  as  the 
government  repealed  or  reformed  the  law  in  the  other. 

Gentlemen,  you  must  undoubtedly  wish  to 
deal  with  every  man  who  comes  before  you  in 
judgment  as  you  would  be  dealt  by;  and  surely 
you  will  not  lay  it  down  to-day  as  a  law  to  be 
binding  hereafter,  even  upon  yourselves,  that  if 
you  should  publish  any  opinion  concerning  exist- 
ing abuses  in  your  country's  government,  and 
point  out  to  the  whole  public  the  means  of  amend- 
ment, you  are  to  be  acquitted  or  convicted  as  any 
twelve  men  may  happen  to  agree  with  you  in 
your  opinions.  Yet  this  is  precisely  what  you 
are  asked  to  do  to  another — it  is  precisely  the  case 
before  you. 

Mr.  Paine  expressly  says,  I  obey  a  law  until 
it  is  repealed ;  obedience  is  not  only  my  principle 
but  my  practise,  since  my  disobedience  of  a  law, 
from  thinking  it  bad,  might  apply  to  justify  an- 
other man  in  the  disobedience  of  a  good  one;  and 
thus  individuals  would  give  the  rule  for  them- 
selves, and  not  society  for  all.  You  will  pres- 
ently see  that  the  same  principle  pervades  the 
whole  work;  and  I  am  the  more  anxious  to  call 
your  attention  to  it,  however  repetition  may  tire 

111 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

you,  because  it  unfolds  the  whole  principle  of  my 
argument ;  for,  if  you  find  a  sentence  in  the  whole 
book  that  invests  any  individual,  or  any  number 
of  individuals,  or  any  community  short  of  the 
whole  nation,  with  a  power  of  changing  any 
part  of  the  law  or  constitution,  I  abandon  the 
cause — yes,  I  freely  abandon  it,  because  I  will  not 
affront  the  majesty  of  a  court  of  justice  by  main- 
taining propositions  which,  even  upon  the  surface 
of  them,  are  false.  Mr.  Paine,  pages  162-168,* 
goes  on  thus : 

When  a  nation  changes  its  opinion  and  habits  of 
thinking,  it  is  no  longer  to  be  governed  as  before;  but 
it  would  not  only  be  wrong,  but  bad  policy,  to  attempt 
by  force  what  ought  to  be  accomplished  by  reason.  Re- 
bellion consists  in  forcibly  opposing  the  general  will  of 
a  nation,  whether  by  a  party  or  by  a  government.  There 
ought,  therefore,  to  be,  in  every  nation,  a  method  of 
occasionally  ascertaining  the  state  of  public  opinion  with 
respect  to  government. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  power  but  the  voluntary  will 
of  the  people  that  has  a  right  to  act  in  any  matter  re- 
specting a  general  reform;  and  by  the  same  right  that 
two  persons  can  confer  on  such  a  subject,  a  thousand 
may.  The  object  in  all  such  preliminary  proceedings 
is  to  find  out  what  the  general  sense  of  a  nation  is, 
and  to  be  governed  by  it.  If  it  prefer  a  bad  or  de- 
fective government  to  a  reform,  or  choose  to  pay  ten 
times  more  taxes  than  there  is  occasion  for,  it  has  a 

*Folios  of  the  original  edition. — Ed. 

112 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

right  so  to  do;  and,  so  long  as  the  majority  do  not 
impose  conditions  on  the  minority  different  to  what  they 
impose  on  themselves,  though  there  may  be  much  error, 
there  is  no  injustice;  neither  will  the  error  continue  long. 
Reason  and  discussion  will  soon  bring  things  right,  how- 
ever wrong  they  may  begin.  By  such  a  process  no 
tumult  is  to  be  apprehended.  The  poor,  in  all  countries, 
are  naturally  both  peaceable  and  grateful  in  all  reforms 
in  which  their  interest  and  happiness  are  included.  It 
is  only  by  neglecting  and  rejecting  them  that  they  be- 
come tumultuous. 

Gentlemen,  these  are  the  sentiments  of  the 
author  of  the  "  Rights  of  Man  " ;  and,  whatever 
his  opinions  may  be  of  the  defects  in  our  Gov- 
ernment, it  never  can  change  ours  concerning  it, 
if  our  sentiments  are  just;  and  a  writing  can 
never  be  seditious,  in  the  sense  of  the  English 
law,  which  states  that  the  Government  leans  on 
the  universal  will  for  its  support. 

This  universal  will  is  the  best  and  securest 
title  which  His  Majesty  and  his  family  have  to 
the  throne  of  these  kingdoms ;  and  in  proportion 
to  the  wisdom  of  our  institutions,  the  title  must 
in  common  sense  become  the  stronger.  So  little 
idea  indeed  have  I  of  any  other,  that  in  my  place 
in  Parliament,  not  a  week  ago,  I  considered  it  as 
the  best  way  of  expressing  my  reverence  to  the 
Constitution ;  as  established  at  the  Revolution,  to 
declare   (I  believe  in  the  presence  of  the  heir- 

113 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

apparent  to  the  Crown,  to  whom  I  have  the  great- 
est personal  attachment),  that  His  Majesty 
reigned  in  England  by  choice  and  consent,  as  the 
magistrate  of  the  English  people;  not  indeed  a 
consent  and  choice  by  personal  election,  like  a 
King  of  Poland — the  worst  of  all  possible  con- 
stitutions; but  by  the  election  of  a  family  for 
great  national  objects,  in  defiance  of  that  heredi- 
tary right,  which  only  becomes  tyranny,  in  the 
sense  of  Mr.  Paine,  when  it  claims  to  inherit  a 
nation,  instead  of  governing  by  their  consent,  and 
continuing  for  its  benefit.  This  sentiment  has  the 
advantage  of  Mr.  Burke's  high  authority,  who 
says  with  great  truth,  in  a  "Letter  to  his  Consti- 
tuents" : 

"  Too  little  dependence  cannot  be  had  at  this 
time  of  day  on  names  and  prejudices:  the  eyes  of 
mankind  are  opened;  and  communities  must  be 
held  together  by  a  visible  and  solid  interest."  I 
believe,  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  that  the  Prince  of 
Wales  will  always  render  this  title  dear  to  the 
people.  The  Attorney-general  can  only  tell  you 
what  he  believes  of  him;  I  can  tell  you  what  I 
know,  and  what  I  am  bound  to  declare,  since  this 
Prince  may  be  traduced  in  every  part  of  the  king- 
dom, without  its  coming  in  question,  till  brought 
in  to  load  a  defense  with  matter  collateral  to  the 
114 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

charge.  I  therefore  assert  what  the  Attorney- 
general  can  only  hope,  that  whenever  that  Prince 
shall  come  to  the  throne  of  this  country  (which 
I  pray,  but,  by  the  course  of  nature,  may  never 
happen),  he  will  make  the  Constitution  of  Great 
Britain  the  foundation  of  all  his  conduct. 

Having  now  established  the  author's  general 
intention  by  his  own  introduction,  which  is  the 
best  and  fairest  exposition,  let  us  next  look  at  the 
occasion  which  gave  it  birth. 

The  Attorney-general  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  his  address  to  you  ( I  knew  it  would  be 
so),  has  avoided  the  most  distant  notice  or  hint 
of  any  circumstance  having  led  to  the  appearance 
of  the  author  in  the  political  world,  after  a  silence 
of  so  many  years ;  he  has  not  even  pronounced,  or 
even  glanced,  at  the  name  of  Mr.  Burke,  but  has 
left  you  to  take  it  for  granted  that  the  defendant 
volunteered  this  delicate  and  momentous  subject, 
and,  without  being  led  to  it  by  the  provocation 
of  political  controversy,  had  seized  a  favorable 
moment  to  stigmatize,  from  mere  malice,  and 
against  his  own  confirmed  opinions,  the  Constitu- 
tion of  this  country. 

Gentlemen,  my  learned  friend  knows  too  well 
my  respect  and  value  for  him  to  suppose  that  I 
am  charging  him  with  wilful  suppression ;  I  know 

115 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

him  to  be  incapable  of  it ;  he  knew  it  would  come 
from  me.  He  will  permit  me,  however,  to  la- 
ment that  it  should  have  been  left  for  me  to  in- 
form you,  at  this  late  period  of  the  cause,  that 
not  only  the  work  before  you,  but  the  first  part, 
of  which  it  is  a  natural  continuation,  were  writ- 
ten, avowedly  and  upon  the  face  of  them,  in 
answer  to  Mr.  Burke. 

They  were  written,  besides,  under  circum- 
stances to  be  explained  hereafter,  in  the  course 
of  which  explanation  I  may  have  occasion  to 
cite  a  few  passages  from  the  works  of  that 
celebrated  person.  And  I  shall  speak  of  him 
with  the  highest  respect;  for,  with  whatever 
contempt  he  may  delight  to  look  down  upon 
my  humble  talents,  however,  he  may  dispar- 
age the  principles  which  direct  my  public  conduct, 
he  shall  never  force  me  to  forget  the  regard  which 
this  country  owes  to  him  for  the  writings  which 
he  has  left  upon  record  as  an  inheritance  to  our 
most  distant  posterity. 

After  the  gratitude  which  we  owe  to  God  for 
the  divine  gifts  of  reason  and  understanding,  our 
next  thanks  are  due  to  those  from  the  fountains 
of  whose  enlightened  minds  they  are  fed  and  fruc- 
tified. But  pleading,  as  I  do,  the  cause  of  free- 
dom of  opinions,  I  shall  not  give  offense  by 
116 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

remarking  that  this  great  author  has  been 
thought  to  have  changed  some  of  his;  and,  if 
Thomas  Paine  had  not  thought  so,  I  should  not 
now  be  addressing  you,  because  the  book  which 
is  my  subject  would  never  have  been  written. 

Who  may  be  right  and  who  in  the  wrong,  in 
the  contention  of  doctrines,  I  have  repeatedly  dis- 
claimed to  be  the  question.  I  can  only  say  that 
Mr.  Paine  may  be  right  throughout,  but  that 
Mr.  Burke  cannot.  Mr.  Paine  has  been  uni- 
form in  his  opinions,  but  Mr.  Burke  has  not. 
Mr.  Burke  can  only  be  right  in  part ;  but  should 
Mr.  Paine  be  even  mistaken  in  the  whole,  still  I 
am  not  removed  from  the  principle  of  his  defense. 
My  defense  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  rectitude 
of  his  doctrines. 

I  admit  Mr.  Paine  to  be  a  republican;  you 
shall  soon  see  what  made  him  one.  I  do  not  seek 
to  shade  or  qualify  his  attack  upon  our  Constitu- 
tion; I  put  my  defense  on  no  such  matter.  He 
undoubtedly  means  to  declare  it  to  be  defective 
in  its  forms,  and  contaminated  with  abuses  which, 
in  his  judgment,  will,  one  day  or  other,  bring  on 
the  ruin  of  us  all.  It  is  in  vain  to  mince  the  mat- 
ter; this  is  the  scope  of  his  work.  But  still,  if 
it  contain  no  attack  upon  the  King's  majesty,  nor 
upon  any  other  living  magistrate  ;  if  it  excite  to 

117 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

no  resistance  to  magistracy,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
if  it  even  studiously  inculcate  obedience,  then, 
whatever  may  be  its  defects,  the  question  con- 
tinues as  before,  and  ever  must  remain,  an  un- 
mixed question  of  the  liberty  of  the  press. 

I  have  therefore  considered  it  as  no  breach  of 
professional  duty,  nor  injurious  to  the  cause  I  am 
defending,  to  express  my  own  admiration  of  the 
real  principles  of  our  Constitution — a  Constitu- 
tion which  I  hope  may  never  give  way  to  any 
other — a  Constitution  which  has  been  productive 
of  many  benefits,  and  which  will  produce  many 
more  hereafter,  if  we  have  wisdom  enough  to 
pluck  up  the  weeds  that  grow  in  the  richest  soils 
and  amongst  the  brightest  flowers. 

I  agree  with  the  merchants  of  London,  in  a 
late  declaration,  that  the  English  Government  is 
equal  to  the  reformation  of  its  own  abuses;  and, 
as  an  inhabitant  of  the  city,  I  would  have  signed 
it,  if  I  had  known,  of  my  own  knowledge,  the 
facts  recited  in  its  preamble.  But  abuses  the 
English  Constitution  unquestionably  has,  which 
call  loudly  for  reformation,  the  existence  of  which 
has  been  the  theme  of  our  greatest  statesmen, 
which  have  too  plainly  formed  the  principles  of 
the  defendant,  and  may  have  led  to  the  very  con- 
juncture which  produced  his  book. 
118 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Gentlemen,  we  all  but  too  well  remember  the 
calamitous  situation  in  which  our  country 
stood  but  a  few  years  ago — a  situation  which  no 
man  can  look  back  upon  without  horror,  nor  feel 
himself  safe  from  relapsing  into  again,  while  the 
causes  remain  which  produced  it.  The  event  I 
allude  to  you  must  know  to  be  the  American  War, 
and  the  still  existing  causes  of  it,  the  corruptions 
of  this  Government.  In  those  days  it  was  not 
thought  virtue  by  the  patriots  of  England  to  con- 
ceal the  existence  of  them  from  the  people;  but 
then,  as  now,  authority  condemned  them  as  disaf- 
fected subjects,  and  defeated  the  ends  they 
sought  by  their  promulgation. 

Hear  the  opinion  of  Sir  George  Saville — not 
his  speculative  opinion  concerning  the  structure 
of  our  Government  in  the  abstract,  but  his  opin- 
ion of  the  settled  abuses  which  prevailed  in  his 
own  time,  and  which  continue  at  this  moment. 
But  first  let  me  remind  you  who  Sir  George  Sa- 
ville was.  I  fear  we  shall  hardly  look  upon  his 
like  again.  How  shall  I  describe  him  to  you?  In 
my  own  words  I  cannot.  I  was  lately  commended 
by  Mr.  Burke  in  the  House  of  Commons  for 
strengthening  my  own  language  by  an  appeal  to 
Dr.  Johnson.  Were  the  honorable  gentleman 
present  at  this  moment  he  would  no  doubt  doubly 

119 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

applaud  my  choice  in  resorting  to  his  own  works 
for  the  description  of  Sir  George  Saville. 

"  His  fortune  is  among  the  largest ;  a  for- 
tune which,  wholly  unencumbered  as  it  is,  with- 
out one  single  charge  from  luxury,  vanity,  or 
excess,  sinks  under  the  benevolence  of  its  dispen- 
ser. This  private  benevolence,  expanding  itself 
into  patriotism,  renders  his  whole  being  the  estate 
of  the  public,  in  which  he  has  not  reserved  a  pecu- 
lium  for  himself  of  profit,  diversion,  or  relaxation. 
During  the  session,  the  first  in  and  the  last  out  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  he  passes  from  the  sen- 
ate to  the  camp;  and  seldom  seeing  the  seat  of 
his  ancestors,  he  is  always  in  Parliament  to  serve 
his  country,  or  in  the  field  to  defend  it." 

It  is  impossible  to  ascribe  to  such  a  character 
any  principle  but  patriotism,  when  he  expressed 
himself  as  follows: — 

"  I  return  to  you  baffled  and  dispirited,  and  I 
am  sorry  that  truth  obliges  me  to  add,  with  hardly 
a  ray  of  hope  of  seeing  any  change  in  the  miser- 
able course  of  public  calamities. 

"  On  this  melancholy  day  of  account,  in  ren- 
dering up  to  you  my  trust,  I  deliver  to  you  your 
share  of  a  country  maimed  and  weakened;  its 
treasure  lavished  and  misspent ;  its  honors  faded ; 
and  its  conduct  the  laughing-stock  of  Europe: 
120 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

our  nation  in  a  manner  without  allies  or  friends, 
except  such  as  we  have  hired  to  destroy  our  fel- 
low-subjects, and  to  ravage  a  country  in  which  we 
once  claimed  an  invaluable  share.  I  return  to 
you  some  of  your  principal  privileges  impeached 
and  mangled.  And,  lastly,  I  leave  you,  as  I  con- 
ceive, at  this  hour  and  moment,  fully,  effectually, 
and  absolutely  under  the  discretion  and  power  of 
a  military  force,  which  is  to  act  without  waiting 
for  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrates. 

"Some  have  been  accused  of  exaggerating  the 
public  misfortunes,  nay,  of  having  endeavored  to 
help  forward  the  mischief,  that  they  might  after- 
wards raise  discontents.  I  am  willing  to  hope 
that  neither  my  temper  nor  my  situation  in  life 
will  be  thought  naturally  to  urge  me  to  promote 
misery,  discord,  or  confusion,  or  to  exult  in  the 
subversion  of  order,  or  in  the  ruin  of  property.  I 
have  no  reason  to  contemplate  with  pleasure  the 
poverty  of  our  country,  the  increase  of  our  debts 
and  of  our  taxes,  or  the  decay  of  our  commerce. 
Trust  not,  however,  to  my  report:  reflect,  com- 
pare and  judge  for  yourselves. 

"  But,  under  all  these  disheartening  circum- 
stances, I  could  yet  entertain  a  cheerful  hope,  and 
undertake  again  the  commission  with  alacrity,  as 
well  as  zeal,  if  I  could  see  any  effectual  steps 
i-u  121 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

taken  to  remove  the  original  cause  of  the  mischief. 
'Then  would  there  be  a  hope.' 

"  But  till  the  purity  of  the  constituent  body, 
and  thereby  that  of  the  representative,  be  re- 
stored, there  is  none. 

"  I  gladly  embrace  this  most  public  oppor- 
tunity of  delivering  my  sentiments,  not  only  to 
all  my  constituents,  but  to  those  likewise  not  my 
constituents,  whom  yet,  in  the  large  sense,  I  rep- 
resent, and  am  faithfully  to  serve. 

"  I  look  upon  restoring  election  and  represen- 
tation in  some  degree  (for  I  expect  no  miracles) 
to  their  original  purity,  to  be  that,  without  which 
all  other  efforts  will  be  vain  and  ridiculous. 

"  If  something  be  not  done,  you  may,  indeed, 
retain  the  outward  form  of  your  Constitution, 
but  not  the  power  thereof." 

Such  were  the  words  of  that  great,  good  man, 
lost  with  those  of  many  others  of  his  time,  and 
his  fame,  as  far  as  power  could  hurt  it,  put  in  the 
shade  along  with  them.  The  consequences  we 
have  all  seen  and  felt :  America,  from  an  obedient, 
affectionate  colony,  became  an  independent  na- 
tion; and  two  millions  of  people,  nursed  in  the 
very  lap  of  our  monarchy,  became  the  willing  sub- 
jects of  a  republican  constitution. 

Gentlemen,  in  that  great  and  calamitous  con- 
122 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

flict  Edmund  Burke  and  Thomas  Paine  fought 
in  the  same  field  of  reason  together,  but  with  very 
different  successes.  Mr.  Burke  spoke  to  a  Par- 
liament in  England,  such  as  Sir  George  Saville 
describes  it,  having  no  ears  but  for  sounds  that 
flattered  its  corruptions.  Mr.  Paine,  on  the  other 
hand,  spoke  to  a  people,  reasoned  with  them, 
told  them  that  they  were  bound  by  no  subjection 
to  any  sovereignty,  further  than  their  own  bene- 
fit connected  them ;  and  by  these  powerful  argu- 
ments prepared  the  minds  of  the  American 
people  for  that  glorious.,  just.,  and  happy  revo- 
lution. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  a  right  to  distinguish  it 
by  these  epithets,  because  I  aver  that  at  this  mo- 
ment there  is  as  sacred  a  regard  to  property,  as 
inviolable  a  security  to  all  the  rights  of  individ- 
uals, lower  taxes,  fewer  grievances,  less  to  de- 
plore, and  more  to  admire,  in  the  Constitution  of 
America,  than  that  of  any  other  country  under 
heaven.  I  wish  indeed  to  except  our  own,  but  I 
cannot  even  do  that,  till  it  shall  be  purged  of 
those  abuses  which,  though  they  obscure  and  de- 
form the  surface,  have  not  as  yet,  thank  God, 
destroyed  the  vital  parts. 

Why  then  is  Mr.  Paine  to  be  calumniated  and 
reviled,  because,  out  of  a  people  consisting  of 

123 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

near  three  millions,  he  alone  did  not  remain  at- 
tached in  opinion  to  a  monarchy?  Remember 
that  all  the  blood  which  was  shed  in  America,  and 
to  which  he  was  for  years  a  melancholy  and  indig- 
nant witness,  was  shed  by  the  authority  of  the 
Crown  of  Great  Britain,  under  the  influence  of  a 
Parliament  such  as  Sir  George  Saville  has  de- 
scribed it,  and  such  as  Mr.  Burke  himself  will 
be  called  upon  by  and  by  in  more  glowing  colors 
to  paint  it. 

How,  then,  can  it  be  wondered  at  that  Mr. 
Paine  should  return  to  this  country  in  his 
heart  a  republican?  Was  he  not  equally  a  re- 
publican when  he  wrote  "Common  Sense"?  Yet 
that  volume  has  been  sold  without  restraint  or 
prosecution  in  every  shop  in  England  ever  since, 
and  which  nevertheless  (I  appeal  to  the  book, 
which  I  have  in  Court,  and  which  is  in  everybody's 
hands)  contains  every  one  principle  of  govern- 
ment, and  every  abuse  in  the  British  Constitution, 
which  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Rights  of  Man." 

Yet  Mi.  Burke  himself  saw  no  reason  to  be 
alarmed  at  that  publication,  nor  to  cry  down  its 
contents,  even  when  America,  which  was  swayed 
by  it,  was  in  arms  against  the  Crown  of  Great 
Britain.  You  shall  hear  his  opinion  of  it  in  his 
124 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

"Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol,"  pages  33  and 
34. 

"  The  Court  Gazette  accomplished  what  the 
abettors  of  independence  had  attempted  in  vain. 
When  that  disingenuous  compilation,  and  strange 
medley  of  railing  and  flattery,  was  adduced  as  a 
proof  of  the  united  sentiments  of  the  people  of 
Great  Britain,  there  was  a  great  change  through- 
out all  America.  The  tide  of  popular  affection, 
which  had  still  set  toward  the  parent  country, 
began  immediately  to  turn,  and  to  flow  with 
great  rapidity  in  a  contrary  course. 

"  Ear  from  concealing  these  wild  declarations 
of  enmity,  the  author  of  the  celebrated  pamphlet* 
which  prepared  the  minds  of  the  people  for  inde- 
pendence, insists  largely  on  the  multitude  and 
the  spirit  of  these  addresses ;  and  draws  an  argu- 
ment from  them  which  (if  the  fact  were  as  he 
supposes)  must  be  irresistible;  for  I  never  knew 
a  writer  on  the  theory  of  government  so  partial 
to  authority  as  not  to  allow  that  the  hostile  mind 
of  the  rulers  to  their  people  did  fully  justify  a 
change  of  government ;  nor  can  any  reason  what- 
ever be  given  why  one  people  should  voluntarily 
yield  any  degree  of  pre-eminence  to  another,  but 
on  a  supposition  of  great  affection  and  benevol- 

*"Common  Sense,"  written  by  Thomas  Paine  in  America, 

125 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

ence  toward  them.  Unfortunately,  your  rulers, 
trusting  to  other  things,  took  no  notice  of  this 
great  principle  of  connection." 

Such  were  the  sentiments  of  Mr.  Burke;  but 
there  is  a  time,  it  seems,  for  all  things. 

Gentlemen,  the  consequences  of  this  mighty 
Revolution  are  too  notorious  to  require  illustra- 
tion. No  audience  would  sit  to  hear  (what  every- 
body has  seen  and  felt),  how  the  independence 
of  America  notoriously  produced,  not  by  remote 
and  circuitous  effect,  but  directly  and  palpably, 
the  revolutions  which  now  agitate  Europe,  and 
which  portend  such  mighty  changes  over  the  face 
of  the  earth.     Let  governments  take  warning. 

The  Revolution  in  France  was  the  conse- 
quence of  her  incurably  corrupt  and  profligate 
Government.  God  forbid  that  I  should  be 
thought  to  lean,  by  this  declaration,  upon  her 
unfortunate  monarch,  bending  perhaps  at  this 
moment  under  afflictions  which  my  heart  sinks 
within  me  to  think  of:  when  I  speak  with  de- 
testation of  the  former  politics  of  the  French 
Court,  I  fasten  as  little  of  them  upon  that 
fallen  and  unhappy  prince,  as  I  impute  to 
our  gracious  Sovereign  the  corruptions  of  our 
own.  I  desire,  indeed,  in  the  distinctest  manner, 
to  be  understood  that  I  mean  to  speak  of  His 
126 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

Majesty,  not  only  with  that  obedience  and  duty 
which  I  owe  to  him  as  a  subject,  but  with  that 
justice  which  I  think  is  due  to  him  from  all  men 
who  examine  his  conduct  either  in  public  or  pri- 
vate life. 

Gentlemen,  Mr.  Paine  happened  to  be  in 
England  when  the  French  Revolution  took  place; 
and  notwithstanding  what  he  must  be  supposed 
and  allowed  from  his  own  history  to  have  felt 
upon  such  a  subject,  he  remained  wholly  silent 
and  inactive.  The  people  of  this  country,  too, 
appeared  to  be  indifferent  spectators  of  the  ani- 
mating scene.  They  saw,  without  visible  emo- 
tion, despotism  destroyed,  and  the  King  of 
France,  by  his  own  consent,  become  the  first 
magistrates  of  a  free  people. 

Certainly,  at  least,  it  produced  none  of  those 
effects  which  are  so  deprecated  by  Government 
at  present;  nor,  most  probable,  ever  would, 
if  it  had  not  occurred  to  the  celebrated  person 
whose  name  I  must  so  often  mention  volun- 
tarily to  provoke  the  subject — a  subject  which, 
if  dangerous  to  be  discussed,  he  should  not 
have  led  to  the  discussion  of;  for  surely  it  is 
not  to  be  endured  that  any  private  man  shall 
publish  a  creed  for  a  whole  nation;  shall  tell  us 
that  we  are  not  to  think  for  ourselves,  shall  im- 

127 


WRITINGS    OF,   THOMAS   PAINE 

pose  his  own  fetters  upon  the  human  mind,  shall 
dogmatize  at  discretion,  and  yet  that  no  man  shall 
sit  down  to  answer  him  without  being  guilty  of  a 
libel.  I  assert  that  if  it  be  a  libel  to  mistake  our 
Constitution,  to  attempt  the  support  of  it  by 
means  that  tend  to  destroy  it,  and  to  choose  the 
most  dangerous  season  for  doing  so,  Mr.  Burke 
is  that  libeler;  but  not  therefore  the  object  of  a 
criminal  prosecution. 

While  I  am  not  defending  the  motives  of  one 
man,  I  have  neither  right  nor  disposition  to  crimi- 
nate the  motives  of  another.  All  I  contend  for  is 
a  fact  that  cannot  be  controverted — viz.,  that 
this  officious  interference  was  the  origin  of  Mr. 
Paine 's  book.  I  put  my  cause  upon  its  being  the 
origin  of  it — the  avowed  origin — as  will  abund- 
antly appear  from  the  introduction  and  preface 
to  both  parts,  and  from  the  whole  body  of  the 
work ;  nay,  from  the  very  work  of  Mr.  Burke  him- 
self, to  which  both  of  them  are  answers. 

For  the  history  of  that  celebrated  work,  I  ap- 
peal to  itself. 

When  the  French  Revolution  had  arrived  at 
some  of  its  early  stages,  a  few,  and  but  a  few, 
persons  (not  to  be  named  when  compared  with 
the  nation)  took  a  visible  interest  in  these  mighty 
events — an  interest  well  worthy  of  Englishmen. 
128 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

They  saw  a  pernicious  system  of  government 
which  had  led  to  desolating  wars,  and  had  been 
for  ages  the  scourge  of  Great  Britain,  giving  way 
to  a  system  which  seemed  to  promise  harmony 
and  peace  amongst  nations.  They  saw  this  with 
virtuous  and  peaceable  satisfaction;  and  a  rev- 
erend divine,*  eminent  for  his  eloquence,  recol- 
lecting that  the  issues  of  life  are  in  the  hands  of 
God,  saw  no  profaneness  in  mixing  the  subject 
with  public  thanksgiving,  by  reminding  the  peo- 
ple of  this  country  of  their  own  glorious  deliver- 
ance in  former  ages. 

It  happened,  also,  that  a  society  of  gentle- 
men, France  being  then  a  neutral  nation,  and 
her  own  monarch  swearing  almost  daily  upon 
her  altars  to  maintain  the  new  Constitution, 
thought  they  infringed  no  law  by  sending  a  gen- 
eral congratulation.  Their  members,  indeed, 
were  very  inconsiderable;  so  much  so,  that  Mr. 
Burke,  with  more  truth  than  wisdom,  begins  his 
volume  with  a  sarcasm  upon  their  insignificance : 

"  Until  very  lately  he  had  never  heard  of  such 
a  club.  It  certainly  never  occupied  a  moment 
of  his  thoughts;  nor,  he  believed,  those  of  any 
person  out  of  their  own  set." 

Why  then  make  their  proceedings  the  sub- 

•Dr.  Price. 

129 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

ject  of  alarm  throughout  England?  There  had 
been  no  prosecution  against  them,  nor  any  charge 
founded  even  upon  suspicion  of  disaffection 
against  any  of  their  body.  But  Mr.  Burke 
thought  it  was  reserved  for  his  eloquence  to  whip 
these  curs  of  faction  to  their  kennels.  How  he 
has  succeeded,  I  appeal  to  all  that  has  happened 
since  the  introduction  of  his  schism  in  the  British 
Empire,  by  giving  to  the  King,  whose  title  was 
questioned  by  no  man,  a  title  which  it  is  His 
Majesty's  most  solemn  interest  to  disclaim. 

After  having,  in  his  first  work,  lashed  Dr. 
Price  in  a  strain  of  eloquent  irony  for  consider- 
ing the  monarchy  to  be  elective,  which  he  could 
not  but  know  Dr.  Price,  in  the  literal  sense  of 
election,  neither  did  nor  could  possibly  consider 
it,  Mr.  Burke  published  a  second  treatise;  in 
which,  after  reprinting  many  passages  from  Mr. 
Paine's  former  work,  he  ridicules  and  denies  the 
supposed  right  of  the  people  to  change  their  gov- 
ernments, in  the  following  words: 

"  The  French  Revolution,  say  they"  speak- 
ing of  the  English  societies,  "  was  the  act  of  the 
majority  of  the  people;  and  if  the  majority  of 
any  other  people,  the  people  of  England  for  in- 
stance, wish  to  make  the  same  change,  they  have 
130 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

the  same  right;  just  the  same  undoubtedly;  that 
is,  none  at  all." 

And  then,  after  speaking  of  the  subserviency 
of  will  to  duty  (in  which  I  agree  with  him),  he, 
in  a  substantive  sentence,  maintains  the  same 
doctrine,  thus: 

"The  constitution  of  a  country  being  once 
settled  upon  some  compact,  tacit  or  expressed, 
there  is  no  power  existing  of  force  to  alter  it, 
without  the  breach  of  the  covenant,  or  the  consent 
of  all  the  parties.  Such  is  the  nature  of  a  con- 
tract." 

So  that  if  reason,  or  even  revelation  itself, 
were  now  to  demonstrate  to  us  that  our  Constitu- 
tion was  mischievous  in  its  effects — if,  to  use  Mr. 
Attorney-general's  expression,  we  had  been  in- 
sane for  the  many  centuries  we  have  supported  it ; 
yet  that  still,  if  the  King  had  not  forfeited  his 
title  to  the  Crown,  nor  the  Lords  their  privileges, 
the  universal  voice  of  the  people  of  En-gland 
could  not  build  up  a  new  government  upon  a  le- 
gitimate basis. 

Passing  by,  for  the  present,  the  absurdity  of 
such  a  proposition,  and  supposing  it  could,  be- 
yond all  controversy,  be  maintained;  for  Heav- 
en's sake,  let  wisdom  never  utter  it!  Let  policy 
and  prudence  forever  conceal  it!     If  you  seek 

131 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

the  stability  of  the  English  Government,  rather 
put  the  book  of  Mr.  Paine,  which  calls  it  bad, 
into  every  hand  in  the  kingdom,  than  doctrines 
which  bid  human  nature  rebel  even  against  that 
which  is  the  best. 

Say  to  the  people  of  England,  Look  at  your 
Constitution,  there  it  lies  before  you — the  work 
of  your  pious  fathers — handed  down  as  a  sacred 
deposit  from  generation  to  generation — the  re- 
sult of  wisdom  and  virtue — and  its  parts  ce- 
mented together  with  kindred  blood:  there  are, 
indeed,  a  few  spots  upon  its  surface;  but  the 
same  principle  which  reared  the  structure  will 
brush  them  all  away.  You  may  preserve  your 
Government — you  may  destroy  it.  To  such  an 
address,  what  would  be  the  answer?  A  chorus 
of  the  nation — yes.,  we  will  preserve  it. 

But  say  to  the  same  nation,  even  of  the  very 
same  Constitution,  It  is  yours,  such  as  it  is,  for 
better  or  for  worse — it  is  strapped  upon  your 
backs,  to  carry  it  as  beasts  of  burden — you  have 
no  jurisdiction  to  cast  it  off.  Let  this  be  your 
position,  and  you  instantly  raise  up  (I  appeal  to 
every  man's  consciousness  of  his  own  nature)  a 
spirit  of  uneasiness  and  discontent.  It  is  this 
spirit  alone  that  has  pointed  most  of  the  passages 
arraigned  before  you. 
132 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

But  let  the  prudence  of  Mr.  Burke's  argu- 
ment be  what  it  may,  the  argument  itself  is  un- 
tenable. His  Majesty  undoubtedly  was  not 
elected  to  the  throne.  No  man  can  be  supposed, 
in  the  teeth  of  fact,  to  have  contended  it ;  but  did 
not  the  people  of  England  elect  King  William, 
and  break  the  hereditary  succession?  and  does 
not  His  Majesty's  title  grow  out  of  that  election? 
It  is  one  of  the  charges  against  the  defendant,  his 
having  denied  the  Parliament  which  called  the 
Prince  of  Orange  to  the  throne  to  have  been  a 
legal  convention  of  the  whole  people;  and  is  not 
the  very  foundation  of  that  charge  that  it  was 
such  a  legal  convention,  and  that  it  was  intended 
to  be  so?  And  if  it  was  so,  did  not  the  people 
then  confer  the  crown  upon  King  William  with- 
out any  regard  to  hereditary  right? 

Did  they  not  cut  off  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
who  stood  directly  in  the  line  of  succession,  and 
who  had  incurred  no  personal  forfeiture?  Did 
they  not  give  their  deliverer  an  estate  in  the 
Crown  totally  new  and  unprecedented  in  the  law 
or  history  of  the  country?  And,  lastly,  might 
they  not,  by  the  same  authority,  have  given  the 
royal  inheritance  to  the  family  of  a  stranger? 
Mr.  Justice  Blackstone,  in  his  "Commentaries," 
asserts  in  terms  that  they  might;  and  ascribes 

133 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

their  choice  of  King  William,  and  the  subsequent 
limitations  of  the  Crown,  not  to  want  of  jurisdic- 
tion, but  to  their  true  origin,  to  prudence  and 
discretion  in  not  disturbing  a  valuable  institution 
further  than  public  safety  and  necessity  dictated. 

The  English  Government  stands  then  on  this 
public  consent,  the  true  root  of  all  governments. 
And  I  agree  with  Mr.  Burke  that,  while  it  is  well 
administered,  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  factions  or 
libels  to  disturb  it;  thougth,  when  ministers  are 
in  fault,  they  are  sure  to  set  down  all  disturb- 
ances to  these  causes.  This  is  most  justly  and 
eloquently  exemplified  in  his  own  "  Thoughts  on 
the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents,"  pages  5 
and  6: 

"  Ministers  contend  that  no  adequate  provo- 
cation has  been  given  for  so  spreading  a  discon- 
tent, our  affairs  having  been  conducted  through- 
out with  remarkable  temper  and  consummate 
wisdom.  The  wicked  industry  of  some  libelers, 
joined  to  the  intrigues  of  a  few  disappointed 
politicians,  have,  in  their  opinion,  been  able  to 
produce  this  unnatural  ferment  in  the  nation. 

"Nothing,  indeed,  can  be  more  unnatural  than 

the  present  convulsions  of  this  country,  if  the 

above  account  be  a  true  one.     I  confess  I  shall 

assent  to  it  with  great  reluctance,  and  only  on 

134 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

the  compulsion  of  the  clearest  and  firmest  proofs ; 
because  their  account  resolves  itself  into  this  short 
but  discouraging  proposition:  'That  we  have  a 
very  good  Ministry,  but  that  we  are  a  very  bad 
people';  that  we  set  ourselves  to  bite  the  hand 
that  feeds  us;  and,  with  a  malignant  insanity, 
oppose  the  measures  and  ungratefully  vilify  the 
persons  of  those  whose  sole  object  is  our  own 
peace  and  prosperity.  If  a  few  puny  libelers, 
acting  under  a  knot  of  factious  politicians,  with- 
out virtue,  parts,  or  character  (for  such  they  are 
constantly  represented  by  these  gentlemen),  are 
sufficient  to  excite  this  disturbance,  very  perverse 
must  be  the  disposition  of  that  people  amongst 
whom  such  a  disturbance  can  be  excited  by  such 
means." 

He  says  true ;  never  were  serious  disturbances 
excited  by  such  means! 

But  to  return  to  the  argument.  Let  us  now 
see  how  the  rights  of  the  people  stand  upon  au- 
thorities. Let  us  examine  whether  this  great 
source  of  government  insisted  on  by  Thomas 
Paine  be  not  maintained  by  persons  on  whom  my 
friend  will  find  it  difficult  to  fasten  the  character 
of  libelers. 

I  shall  begin  with  the  most  modern  author  on 
the   subject   of   government — whose   work   lies 

135 


.WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

spread  out  before  me,  as  it  often  does  at  home  for 
my  delight  and  instruction  in  my  leisure  hours.  I 
have  also  the  honor  of  his  personal  acquaintance. 
He  is  a  man,  perhaps  more  than  any  other,  de- 
voted to  the  real  Constitution  of  this  country,  as 
will  be  found  throughout  his  valuable  work ;  he  is 
a  person,  besides,  of  great  learning,  which  enabled 
him  to  infuse  much  useful  knowledge  into  my 
learned  friend  now  near  me,  who  introduced  me  to 
him.*  I  speak  of  Mr.  Paley,  Archdeacon  of  Car- 
lisle, and  of  his  work  "  The  Principles  of  Political 
and  Moral  Philosophy,"  in  which  he  investigates 
the  first  principles  of  all  governments — a  discus- 
sion not  thought  dangerous  till  lately.  I  hope 
we  shall  soon  get  rid  of  this  ridiculous  panic. 

Mr.  Paley  professes  to  think  of  govern- 
ments what  the  Christian  religion  was  thought  of 
by  its  first  teachers — "If  it  be  of  God,  it  will 
stand";  and  he  puts  the  duty  of  obedience  to 
them  upon  free  will  and  moral  duty.  After  dis- 
seting  from  Mr.  Locke  as  to  the  origin  of  gov- 
ernments in  compact,  he  says: 

"Wherefore,  rejecting  the  intervention  of  a 
compact  as  unfounded  in  its  principle,  and  dan- 
gerous in  the  application,  we  assign  for  the  only 

•Lord  Ellenborough,  then  Mr.  Law. 

186 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

ground  of  the  subjects'  obligation,  the  will  of 
God,  as  collected  from  expediency. 

"The  steps  by  which  the  argument  proceeds 
are  few  and  direct.  'It  is  the  will  of  God  that 
the  happiness  of  human  life  be  promoted' ; — this 
is  the  first  step,  and  the  foundation,  not  only  of 
this,  but  of  every  moral  conclusion.  'Civil  soci- 
ety conduces  to  that  end' — this  is  the  second 
proposition.  'Civil  societies  cannot  be  upheld 
unless  in  each  the  interest  of  the  whole  society  be 
binding  upon  every  part  and  member  of  it' — 
this  is  the  third  step,  and  conducts  us  to  the  con- 
clusion— namely,  'That,  so  long  as  the  interest  of 
the  whole  society  requires  it  (that  is,  so  long  as 
the  established  government  cannot  be  resisted  or 
changed  without  public  inconveniency),  it  is  the 
will  of  God  (which  will  universally  determines 
our  duty)  that  the  established  government  be 
obeyed' — and  no  longer. 

"  But  who  shall  judge  of  this?  We  answer, 
'Every  man  for  himself/  In  contentions  be- 
tween the  sovereign  and  the  subject,  the  parties 
acknowledge  no  common  arbitrator ;  and  it  would 
be  absurd  to  commit  the  decision  to  those  whose 
conduct  has  provoked  the  question,  and  whose 
own  interest,  authority,  and  fate  are  immediately 
concerned  in  it.  The  danger  of  error  and  abuse 
i-m  137 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

is  no  objection  to  the  rule  of  expediency,  because 
every  other  rule  is  liable  to  the  same  or  greater; 
and  every  rule  that  can  be  propounded  upon  the 
subject  (like  all  rules  which  appeal  to  or  bind  the 
conscience)  must,  in  the  application,  depend  up- 
on private  judgment.  It  may  be  observed,  how- 
ever, that  it  ought  equally  to  be  accounted  the 
exercise  of  a  man's  private  judgment,  whether 
he  determines  by  reasonings  and  conclusions  of 
his  own,  or  submits  to  be  directed  by  the  advice  of 
others,  provided  he  be  free  to  choose  his  guide." 

He  then  proceeds  in  a  manner  rather  incon- 
sistent with  the  principles  entertained  by  my 
learned  friend  in  his  opening  to  you: 

"  No  usage,  law,  or  authority  whatever,  is  so 
binding  that  it  need  or  ought  to  be  continued 
when  it  may  be  changed  with  advantage  to  the 
community.  The  family  of  the  Prince — the  or- 
der of  succession — the  prerogative  of  the  Crown 
— the  form  and  parts  of  the  Legislature — to- 
gether with  the  respective  powers,  office,  duration, 
and  mutual  dependency  of  the  several  parts — are 
all  only  so  many  laws,  mutable,  like  other  laws, 
whenever  expediency  requires,  either  by  the  ordi- 
nary act  of  legislature,  or,  if  the  occasion  deserve 

it,  BY  THE  INTERPOSITION  OF  THE  PEOPLE." 

No  man  can  say  that  Mr.  Paley  intended  to 
138 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

diffuse  discontent  by  this  declaration.  He  must, 
therefore,  be  taken  to  think  with  me,  that  freedom 
and  affection,  and  the  sense  of  advantage,  are  the 
best  and  the  only  supports  of  government.  On 
the  same  principle  he  then  goes  on  to  say :  "These 
points  are  wont  to  be  approached  with  a  kind  of 
awe;  they  are  represented  to  the  mind  as  princi- 
ples of  the  Constitution,  settled  by  our  ancestors ; 
and,  being  settled,  to  be  no  more  committed  to 
innovation  or  debate;  as  foundations  never  to  be 
stirred;  as  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  social 
compact,  to  which  every  citizen  of  the  state  has 
engaged  his  fidelity  by  virtue  of  a  promise  which 
he  cannot  now  recall.  Such  reasons  have  no 
place  in  our  system." 

These  are  the  sentiments  of  this  excellent 
author ;  and  there  is  no  part  of  Mr.  Paine's  work, 
from  the  one  end  of  it  to  the  other,  that  advances 
any  other  proposition. 

But  the  Attorney-general  will  say  these  are 
the  grave  speculative  opinions  of  a  friend  to  the 
English  Government,  whereas  Mr.  Paine  is  its 
professed  enemy;  what  then?  The  principle  is, 
that  every  man,  while  he  obeys  the  law,  is  to  think 
for  himself,  and  to  communicate  what  he  thinks. 
The  very  ends  of  society  exact  this  license,  and 
the  policy  of  the  law,  in  its  provisions  for  its  secu- 

139 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

rity,  has  tacitly  sanctioned  it.  The  real  fact  is, 
that  writings  against  a  free  and  well-propor- 
tioned government  need  not  be  guarded  against 
by  laws.  They  cannot  often  exist,  and  never 
with  effect.  The  just  and  lawful  principles  of 
society  are  rarely  brought  forward  but  when  they 
are  insulted  or  denied,  or  abused  in  practise. 
Mr.  Locke's  "  Essay  on  Government"  we  owe  to 
Sir  Robert  Filmer,  as  we  owe  Mr.  Paine's  to  Mr. 
Burke ;  indeed,  between  the  arguments  of  Filmer 
and  Burke  I  see  no  essential  difference,  since  it  is 
not  worth  disputing  whether  a  king  exists  by 
divine  right  or  by  indissoluble  human  compact,  if 
he  exists  whether  we  will  or  no.  If  his  existence 
be  without  our  consent,  and  is  to  continue  with- 
out benefit,  it  matters  not  whether  his  title  be 
from  God  or  from  man. 

That  his  title  is  from  man,  and  from  every 
generation  of  man,  without  regard  to  the  deter- 
mination of  former  ones,  hear  from  Mr.  Locke: 
"All  men"  say  they  (i.e.,  Filmer  and  his  adher- 
ents), "are  born  under  government,  and  there- 
fore they  cannot  be  at  liberty  to  begin  a  new  one. 
Everyone  is  born  a  subject  to  his  father,  or  his 
Prince,  and  is  therefore  under  the  perpetual  tie 
of  subjection  and  allegiance.  It  is  plain  man- 
kind never  owned  nor  considered  any  such  nat- 
140 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

ural  subjection  that  they  were  born  in,  to  one  or 
the  other,  that  tied  them,  without  their  own  con- 
sents, to  a  subjection  to  them  and  their  heirs. 

"  It  is  true  that  whatever  engagements  or 
promises  anyone  has  made  for  himself,  he  is  under 
the  obligation  of  them,  but  cannot,  by  any  com- 
pact whatsoever,  bind  his  children  or  posterity; 
for  his  son,  when  a  man,  being  altogether  as  free 
as  his  father,  any  act  of  the  father  can  no  more 
give  away  the  liberty  of  the  son  than  it  can  of 
anybody  else." 

So  much  for  Mr.  Locke's  opinion  of  the  rights 
of  man.  Let  us  now  examine  his  ideas  of  the 
supposed  danger  of  trusting  him  with  them. 

"  Perhaps  it  will  be  said  that — the  people  be- 
ing ignorant,  and  always  discontented — to  lay 
the  foundation  of  government  in  the  unsteady 
opinion  and  uncertain  humor  of  the  people  is  to 
expose  it  to  certain  ruin ;  and  no  government  will 
be  able  long  to  subsist  if  the  people  may  set  up 
a  new  legislature  whenever  they  take  offense  at 
the  old  one. 

"  To  this  I  answer,  Quite  the  contrary;  people 
are  not  so  easily  got  out  of  their  old  forms  as 
some  are  apt  to  suggest;  they  are  hardly  to  be 
prevailed  with  to  amend  the  acknowledged 
faults  in  the  frame  they  have  been  accustomed 

141 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

to;  and  if  there  be  any  original  defects,  or 
adventitious  ones,  introduced  by  time  or  corrup- 
tion, it  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  be  changed,  even 
when  all  the  world  sees  there  an  opportunity  for 
it.  This  slowness  and  aversion  in  the  people  to 
quit  their  old  constitutions  has,  in  the  many  revo- 
lutions which  have  been  seen  in  this  kingdom  in 
this  and  former  ages,  still  kept  us  to,  or,  after 
some  interval  of  fruitless  attempts,  still  brought 
us  back  again,  to  our  old  legislative  of  kings, 
lords,  and  commons;  and  whatever  provocations 
have  made  the  crown  be  taken  from  some  of  our 
princes'  heads,  they  never  carried  the  people  so 
far  as  to  place  it  in  another  line." 

Gentlemen,  I  wish  I  had  strength  to  go  on 
with  all  that  follows ;  but  I  have  read  enough,  not 
only  to  maintain  the  true  principles  of  govern- 
ment, but  to  put  to  shame  the  narrow  system  of 
distrusting  the  people. 

It  may  be  said  that  Mr.  Locke  went  great 
lengths  in  his  positions  to  beat  down  the  contrary 
doctrine  of  divine  right,  which  was  then  endan- 
gering the  new  establishment.  But  that  cannot 
be  objected  to  David  Hume,  who  maintains  the 
same  doctrine.  Speaking  of  the  Magna  Charta 
in  his  "History,"  vol.  ii,  page  88,  he  says: 

"  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  former  articles 
142 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

of  the  great  charter  contain  such  mitigations  and 
explanations  of  the  feudal  law  as  are  reasonable 
and  equitable;  and  that  the  latter  involve  all  the 
chief  outlines  of  a  legal  government,  and  provide 
for  the  equal  distribution  of  justice  and  free  en- 
joyment of  property;  the  great  object  for  which 
political  society  was  founded  by  men,  which  the 
people  have  a  perpetual  and  unalienable  right  to 
recall;  and  which  no  time,  nor  precedent,  nor 
statute,  nor  positive  institution,  ought  to  deter 
them  from  keeping  ever  uppermost  in  their 
thoughts  and  attention" 

These  authorities  are  sufficient  to  rest  on ;  yet 
I  cannot  omit  Mr.  Burke  himself,  who  is,  if  pos- 
sible, still  more  distinct  on  the  subject.  Speak- 
ing not  of  the  ancient  people  of  England,  but  of 
colonies  planted  almost  within  our  memories,  he 
says: 

"If  there  be  one  fact  in  the  world  perfectly 
clear,  it  is  this,  that  the  disposition  of  the  people 
of  America  is  wholly  averse  to  any  other  than  a 
free  government;  and  this  is  indication  enough  to 
any  honest  statesman  how  he  ought  to  adapt 
whatever  power  he  finds  in  his  hands  to  their  case. 
If  any  ask  me  what  a  free  government  is,  I 
answer,  that  it  is  what  the  people  think  so  ; 

AND  THAT  THEY,  AND  NOT  I,  AEE  THE  NATUEAL, 

143 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

LAWFUL,  AND  COMPETENT  JUDGES  OF  THIS  MAT- 
TER. If  they  practically  allow  me  a  greater 
degree  of  authority  over  them  than  is  consistent 
with  any  correct  ideas  of  perfect  freedom,  I 
ought  to  thank  them  for  so  great  a  trust,  and  not 
to  endeavor  to  prove  from  thence  that  they  have 
reasoned  amiss;  and  that,  having  gone  so  far,  by 
analogy,  they  must  hereafter  have  no  enjoyment 
but  by  my  pleasure.'* 

Gentlemen,  all  that  I  have  been  stating  hith- 
erto has  been  only  to  show  that  there  is  not  that 
novelty  in  the  opinions  of  the  defendant  as  to  lead 
you  to  think  he  does  not  bona  fide  entertain  them, 
much  less  when  connected  with  the  history  of  his 
life,  which  I  therefore  brought  in  review  before 
you.  But  still  the  great  question  remains  un- 
argued: Had  he  a  right  to  promulgate  these 
opinions?  If  he  entertained  them,  I  shall  argue 
that  he  had;  and  although  my  arguments  upon 
the  liberty  of  the  press  o?ay  not  to-day  be  hon- 
ored with  your  or  the  Court's  approbation,  I 
shall  retire  not  at  all  disheartened,  consoling  my- 
self with  the  reflection  that  a  season  may  arrive 
for  their  reception. 

The  most  essential  liberties  of  mankind  have 
been  but  slowly  and  gradually  received;  and  so 
very  late  indeed  do  some  of  them  come  to  matu- 
144 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

rity  that,  notwithstanding  the  Attorney-general 
tells  you  that  the  very  question  I  am  now  agita- 
ting is  most  peculiarly  for  your  consideration,  as 
a  jury  under  our  ancient  Constitution,  yet  I 
must  remind  both  you  and  him  that  your  juris- 
diction to  consider  and  deal  with  it  at  all  in  judg- 
ment is  but  a  year  old.  Before  that  late  period 
I  ventured  to  maintain  this  very  right  of  a  jury 
over  the  question  of  libel  under  the  same  ancient 
Constitution  (I  do  not  mean  before  the  noble 
judge  now  present,  for  the  matter  was  gone  to 
rest  in  the  courts  long  before  he  came  to  sit  where 
he  does,  but)  before  a  noble  and  reverend  magis- 
trate of  the  most  exalted  understanding,  and  of 
the  most  uncorrupted  integrity.* 

He  treated  me  not  with  contempt,  indeed, 
for  of  that  his  nature  was  incapable,  but  he  put 
me  aside  with  indulgence,  as  you  do  a  child  while 
it  is  lisping  its  prattle  out  of  season;  and  if  this 
cause  had  been  tried  then,,  instead  of  now,  the 
defendant  must  have  been  instantly  convicted  on 
the  proof  of  the  publication,  whatever  you  might 
have  thought  of  his  case.  Yet  I  have  lived  to  see 
it  resolved,  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote  of  the 
whole  Parliament  of  England,  that  I  had  all 
along  been  in  the  right.     If  this  be  not  an  awful 

*Earl  of  Mansfield. 

145 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

lesson  of  caution  concerning  opinions,  where  are 
such  lessons  to  be  read? 

Gentlemen,  I  have  insisted,  at  great  length, 
upon  the  origin  of  governments,  and  detailed  the 
authorities  which  you  have  heard  upon  the  sub- 
ject, because  I  consider  it  to  be  not  only  an  es- 
sential support,  but  the  very  foundation  of  the 
liberty  of  the  press.  If  Mr.  Burke  be  right  in 
his  principles  of  government,  I  admit  that  the 
press,  in  my  sense  of  its  freedom,  ought  not  to 
be  free,  nor  free  in  any  sense  at  all;  and  that  all 
addresses  to  the  people  upon  the  subject  of  gov- 
ernment, and  all  speculations  of  amendment,  of 
what  kind  or  nature  soever,  are  illegal  and  crim- 
inal, since,  if  the  people  have,  without  possible 
recall,  delegated  all  their  authorities,  they  have 
no  jurisdiction  to  act,  and  therefore  none  to  think 
or  write  upon  such  subjects;  and  it  would  be  a 
libel  to  arraign  Government,  or  any  of  its  acts, 
before  those  who  have  no  jurisdiction  to  correct 
them.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  as  it  is  a  settled 
rule  in  the  law  of  England  that  the  subject  may 
always  address  a  competent  jurisdiction,  no  legal 
argument  can  shake  the  freedom  of  the  press,  in 
my  sense  of  it,  if  I  am  supported  in  my  doctrines 
concerning  the  great  unalienable  right  of  the 
people,  to  reform  or  to  change  their  governments. 
146 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

It  is  because  the  liberty  of  the  press  resolves 
itself  into  this  great  issue  that  it  has  been,  in 
every  country,  the  last  liberty  which  subjects  have 
been  able  to  wrest  from  power.  Other  liberties 
are  held  under  governments,  but  the  liberty  of 
opinion  keeps  governments  themselves  in  due 
subjection  to  their  duties.  This  has  produced 
the  martyrdom  of  truth  in  every  age,  and  the 
world  has  been  only  purged  from  ignorance  with 
the  innocent  blood  of  those  who  have  enlight- 
ened it. 

Gentlemen,  my  strength  and  time  are  wasted, 
and  I  can  only  make  this  melancholy  history  pass 
like  a  shadow  before  you. 

I  shall  begin  with  the  grand  type  and  ex- 
ample. 

The  universal  God  of  nature,  the  Savior  of 
mankind,  the  Fountain  of  all  light,  who  came  to 
pluck  the  world  from  eternal  darkness,  expired 
upon  a  cross — the  scoff  of  infidel  scorn;  and  His 
blessed  apostles  followed  Him  in  the  train  of 
martyrs.  When  He  came  in  the  flesh,  He  might 
have  come  like  the  Mahometan  prophet,  as  a 
powerful  sovereign,  and  propagated  His  religion 
with  an  unconquerable  sword,  which  even  now, 
after  the  lapse  of  ages,  is  but  slowly  advancing 
under  the  influence  of  reason  over  the  face  of  the 

147 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

earth ;  but  such  a  process  would  have  been  incon- 
sistent with  His  mission,  which  was  to  confound 
the  pride,  and  to  establish  the  universal  rights  of 
men.  He  came,  therefore,  in  that  lowly  state 
which  is  represented  in  the  Gospel,  and  preached 
His  consolations  to  the  poor. 

When  the  foundation  of  this  religion  was  dis- 
covered to  be  invulnerable  and  immortal,  we  find 
political  power  taking  the  Church  into  partner- 
ship ;  thus  began  the  corruptions,  both  of  religion 
and  civil  power ;  and,  hand  in  hand  together,  what 
havoc  have  they  not  made  in  the  world? — ruling 
by  ignorance  and  the  persecution  of  truth;  but 
this  very  persecution  only  hastened  the  revival 
of  letters  and  liberty.  Nay,  you  will  find  that 
in  the  exact  proportion  that  knowledge  and  learn- 
ing have  been  beat  down  and  fettered,  they  have 
destroyed  the  governments  which  bound  them. 

The  Court  of  Star  Chamber,  the  first  restric- 
tion of  the  press  of  England,  was  erected  previ- 
ous to  all  the  great  changes  in  the  Constitution. 
From  that  moment,  no  man  could  legally  write 
without  an  imprimatur  from  the  State ;  but  truth 
and  freedom  found  their  way  with  greater  force 
through  secret  channels;  and  the  unhappy 
Charles,  unwarned  by  a  free  press,  was  brought 
to  an  ignominious  death.  When  men  can  freely 
148 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

communicate  their  thoughts  and  their  sufferings, 
real  or  imaginary,  their  passions  spend  them- 
selves in  air,  like  gunpowder  scattered  upon  the 
surface;  but,  pent  up  by  terrors,  they  work  un- 
seen, burst  forth  in  a  moment,  and  destroy  every- 
thing in  their  course.  Let  reason  be  opposed  to 
reason,  and  argument  to  argument,  and  every 
good  government  will  be  safe. 

The  usurper,  Cromwell,  pursued  the  same 
system  of  restraint  in  support  of  his  Govern- 
ment, and  the  end  of  it  speedily  followed. 

At  the  restoration  of  Charles  II  the  Star 
Chamber  Ordinance  of  1637  was  worked  up  into 
an  act  of  Parliament,  and  was  followed  up  dur- 
ing that  reign,  and  the  short  one  that  followed  it, 
by  the  most  sanguinary  prosecutions.  But  what 
fact  in  history  is  more  notorious  than  that  this 
blind  and  contemptible  policy  prepared  and  has- 
tened the  Revolution?  At  that  great  era  these 
cobwebs  were  all  brushed  away.  The  freedom 
of  the  press  was  regenerated,  and  the  country, 
ruled  by  its  affections,  has  since  enjoyed  a  cen- 
tury of  tranquillity  and  glory.  Thus  I  have 
maintained  by  English  history  that,  in  propor- 
tion as  the  press  has  been  free,  English  govern- 
ment has  been  secure. 

Gentlemen,  the  same  important  truth  may  be 

149 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

illustrated  by  great  authorities.  Upon  a  subject 
of  this  kind  resort  cannot  be  had  to  law  cases. 
The  ancient  law  of  England  knew  nothing  of 
such  libels;  they  began,  and  should  have  ended, 
with  the  Star  Chamber.  What  writings  are 
slanderous  of  individuals  must  be  looked  for 
where  these  prosecutions  are  recorded;  but  upon 
general  subjects  we  must  go  to  general  writers. 
If,  indeed,  I  were  to  refer  to  obscure  authors,  I 
might  be  answered  that  my  very  authorities  were 
libels,  instead  of  justifications  or  examples;  but 
this  cannot  be  said  with  effect  of  great  men,  whose 
works  are  classics  in  our  language,  taught  in  our 
schools,  and  repeatedly  printed  under  the  eye 
of  Government. 

I  shall  begin  with  the  poet  Milton,  a  great 
authority  in  all  learning.  It  may  be  said,  indeed, 
he  was  a  republican,  but  that  would  only  prove 
that  republicanism  is  not  incompatible  with  vir- 
tue. It  may  be  said,  too,  that  the  work  which  I 
cite  was  written  against  previous  licensing,  which 
is  not  contended  for  to-day.  But  if  every  work 
were  to  be  adjudged  a  libel  which  was  adverse  to 
the  wishes  of  Government,  or  to  the  opinions  of 
those  who  may  compose  it,  the  revival  of  a  licenser 
would  be  a  security  to  the  public.  If  I  present 
my  book  to  a  magistrate  appointed  by  law,  and 
150 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

he  rejects  it,  I  have  only  to  forbear  from  the  pub- 
lication. In  the  forbearance  I  am  safe;  and  he 
too  is  answerable  to  law  for  the  abuse  of  his  au- 
thority. But,  upon  the  argument  of  to-day,  a 
man  must  print  at  his  peril,  without  any  guide  to 
the  principles  of  judgment  upon  which  his  work 
may  be  afterwards  prosecuted  and  condemned. 
Milton's  argument  therefore  applies,  and  was 
meant  to  apply,  to  every  interruption  to  writing, 
which,  while  they  oppress  the  individual,  endan- 
ger the  state. 

"We  have  them  not,"  says  Milton,  "that  can 
be  heard  of,  from  any  ancient  state,  or  policy,  or 
church,  nor  by  any  statute  left  us  by  our  ances- 
tors, elder  or  later,  nor  from  the  modern  custom 
of  any  reformed  city,  or  church  abroad ;  but  from 
the  most  anti-Christian  council,  and  the  most 
tyrannous  inquisition  that  ever  existed.  Till 
then,  books  were  ever  as  freely  admitted  into  the 
world  as  any  other  birth;  the  issue  of  the  brain 
was  no  more  stifled  than  the  issue  of  the  womb. 

"To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure;  not  only 
meats  and  drinks,  but  all  kind  of  knowledge, 
whether  good  or  evil.  The  knowledge  cannot 
defile,  nor  consequently  the  books,  if  the  will  and 
conscience  be  not  defiled. 

"Bad  books  serve  in  many  respects  to  dis- 

151 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

cover,  to  confute,  to  forewarn,  and  to  illustrate. 
Whereof,  what  better  witness  can  we  expect  I 
should  produce  than  one  of  your  own,  now  sitting 
in  Parliament,  the  chief  of  learned  men  reputed 
in  this  land,  Mr.  Selden,  whose  volume  of  nat- 
ural and  national  laws  proves,  not  only  by  great 
authorities  brought  together,  but  by  exquisite 
reasons  and  theorems  almost  mathematically  de- 
monstrative, that  all  opinions,  yea,  errors, 
known,  read,  and  collated,  are  of  main  service 
and  assistance  toward  the  speedy  attainment  of 
what  is  truest? 

"Opinions  and  understanding  are  not  such 
wares  as  to  be  monopolized  and  traded  in  by  tick- 
ets, and  statutes,  and  standards.  We  must  not 
think  to  make  a  staple  commodity  of  all  the 
knowledge  in  the  land  to  mark  and  license  it  like 
our  broadcloth  and  our  woolpacks. 

"Nor  is  it  to  the  common  people  less  than  a 
reproach;  for  if  we  be  jealous  over  them  that 
we  cannot  trust  them  with  an  English  pamphlet, 
what  do  we  but  censure  them  for  a  giddy,  vicious, 
and  ungrounded  people ;  in  such  a  sick  and  weak 
estate  of  faith  and  discretion  as  to  be  able  to  take 
nothing  down  but  through  the  pipe  of  a  licenser? 
That  this  is  care  or  love  of  them  we  cannot 
pretend. 

152 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

"Those  corruptions  which  it  seeks  to  prevent 
break  in  faster  at  doors  which  cannot  be  shut. 
To  prevent  men  thinking  and  acting  for  them- 
selves by  restraints  on  the  press  is  like  to  the  ex- 
ploits of  that  gallant  man  who  thought  to  pound 
up  the  crows  by  shutting  his  park  gate. 

"  This  obstructing  violence  meets,  for  the  most 
part,  with  an  event  utterly  opposite  to  the  end 
which  it  drives  at.  Instead  of  suppressing  books, 
it  raises  them  and  invests  them  with  a  reputation. 
The  punishment  of  wits  enhances  their  authority, 
saith  the  Viscount  St.  Albans,  and  a  forbidden 
writing  is  thought  to  be  a  certain  spark  of  truth 
that  flies  up  in  the  face  of  them  who  seek  to  tread 
it  out." 

He  then  adverts  to  his  visit  to  the  famous 
Galileo,  whom  he  found  and  visited  in  the  Inquisi- 
tion, "for  not  thinking  in  astronomy  with  the 
Franciscan  and  Dominican  monks."  And  what 
event  ought  more  deeply  to  interest  and  affect  us  ? 
The  very  laws  of  nature  were  to  bend  under 
the  rod  of  a  licenser.  This  illustrious  astronomer 
ended  his  life  within  the  bars  of  a  prison,  because, 
in  seeing  the  phases  of  Venus  through  his  newly 
invented  telescope,  he  pronounced  that  she  shone 
with  borrowed  light,  and  from  the  sun  as  the  cen- 
ter of  the  universe.  This  was  the  mighty  crime, 
i-u  153 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  placing  the  sun  in  the  center :  that  sun  which 
now  inhabits  it  upon  the  foundation  of  mathe- 
matical truth,  which  enables  us  to  traverse  the 
pathless  ocean,  and  to  carry  our  line  and  rule 
among  other  worlds,  which,  but  for  Galileo,  we 
had  never  known,  perhaps  even  to  the  recesses  of 
an  infinite  and  eternal  God. 

Milton  then,  in  his  most  eloquent  address  to 
the  Parliament,  puts  the  liberty  of  the  press  on 
its  true  and  most  honorable  foundation: 

"Believe  it,  Lords  and  Commons,  they  who 
counsel  ye  to  such  a  suppressing  of  books,  do  as 
good  as  bid  you  suppress  yourselves,  and  I  will 
soon  show  how. 

"If  it  be  desired  to  know  the  immediate  cause 
of  all  this  free  writing  and  free  speaking,  there 
cannot  be  assigned  a  truer  than  your  own  mild, 
and  free,  and  humane  government.  It  is  the 
liberty,  Lords  and  Commons,  which  your  own 
valorous  and  happy  counsels  have  purchased  us; 
liberty,  which  is  the  nurse  of  all  great  wits.  This 
is  that  which  hath  rarefied  and  enlightened  our 
spirits  like  the  influence  of  Heaven.  This  is  that 
which  hath  enfranchised,  enlarged,  and  lifted  up 
our  apprehensions  degrees  above  themselves.  Ye 
cannot  make  us  now  less  capable,  less  knowing, 
less  eagerly  pursuing  the  truth,  unless  ye  first 
154 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

make  yourselves  that  made  us  so  less  the  lovers, 
less  the  founders,  of  our  true  liberty.  We  can 
grow  ignorant  again,  brutish,  formal,  and  slavish, 
as  ye  found  us;  but  you  then  must  first  become 
that  which  ye  cannot  be,  oppressive,  arbitrary, 
and  tyrannous,  as  they  were  from  whom  ye  have 
freed  us.  That  our  hearts  are  now  more  capa- 
cious, our  thoughts  now  more  erected  to  the 
search  and  expectation  of  greatest  and  exactest 
things,  is  the  issue  of  your  own  virtue  propa- 
gated in  us.  Give  me  the  liberty  to  know,  to  ut- 
ter, and  to  argue  freely,  according  to  conscience, 
above  all  liberties." 

Gentlemen,  I  will  yet  refer  you  to  another 
author,  whose  opinion  you  may  think  more  in 
point,  as  having  lived  in  our  own  times,  and 
as  holding  the  highest  monarchical  principles  of 
government.  I  speak  of  Mr.  Hume,  who,  never- 
theless, considers  that  this  liberty  of  the  press 
extends  not  only  to  abstract  speculation,  but  to 
keep  the  public  on  their  guard  against  all  the 
acts  of  their  government. 

After  showing  the  advantages  of  a  monarchy 
to  public  freedom,  provided  it  is  duly  controlled 
and  watched  by  the  popular  part  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, he  says,  "These  principles  account  for  the 
great  liberty  of  the  press  in  these  kingdoms,  be- 
ll 55 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

yond  what  is  indulged  in  any  other  government. 
It  is  apprehended  that  arbitrary  power  would 
steal  in  upon  us  were  we  not  careful  to  prevent 
its  progress,  and  were  there  not  an  easy  method 
of  conveying  the  alarm  from  one  end  of  the  king- 
dom to  the  other.  The  spirit  of  the  people  must 
frequently  be  roused  in  order  to  curb  the  ambi- 
tion of  the  Court,  and  the  dread  of  rousing  this 
spirit  must  be  employed  to  prevent  that  ambi- 
tion. Nothing  is  so  effectual  to  this  purpose  as 
the  liberty  of  the  press,  by  which  all  the  learning, 
wit,  and  genius  of  the  nation  may  be  employed 
on  the  side  of  freedom,  and  everyone  be  animated 
to  its  defense.  As  long,  therefore,  as  the  repub- 
lican part  of  our  Government  can  maintain  itself 
against  the  monarchical,  it  will  naturally  be  care- 
ful to  keep  the  press  open,  as  of  importance  to 
its  own  preservation." 

There  is  another  authority  contemporary  with 
the  last,  a  splendid  speaker  in  the  Upper  House 
of  Parliament,  and  who  held  during  most  of  his 
time  high  offices  under  the  King.  I  speak  of  the 
Earl  of  Chesterfield,  who  thus  expressed  himself 
in  the  House  of  Lords:  "One  of  the  greatest 
blessings,  My  Lords,  we  enjoy  is  liberty;  but 
every  good  in  this  life  has  its  alloy  of  evil.  Licen- 
tiousness is  the  alloy  of  liberty,  it  is — " 
156 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Lord  Kenyon:  Doctor  Johnson  claims  to 
pluck  that  feather  from  Lord  Chesterfield's  wing. 
He  speaks,  I  believe,  of  the  eye  of  the  political 
body. 

Mr.  Erskine:  My  Lord,  I  am  happy  that  it 
is  admitted  to  be  a  feather.  I  have  heard  it  said 
that  Lord  Chesterfield  borrowed  that  which  I 
was  just  about  to  state,  and  which  His  Lordship 
has  anticipated. 

Lord  Kenyon  :  That  very  speech  which  did 
Lord  Chesterfield  so  much  honor  is  supposed  to 
have  been  written  by  Doctor  Johnson. 

Mr.  Erskine:  Gentlemen,  I  believe  it  was 
so,  and  I  am  much  obliged  to  His  Lordship  for 
giving  me  a  far  higher  authority  for  my  doctrine. 
For  though  Lord  Chesterfield  was  a  man  of  great 
wit,  he  was  undoubtedly  far  inferior  in  learning 
and,  what  is  more  to  the  purpose,  in  monarchical 
opinion,  to  the  celebrated  writer  to  whom  my 
Lord  has  now  delivered  the  work  by  his  authority. 
Doctor  Johnson  then  says,  "One  of  the  greatest 
blessings  we  enjoy,  one  of  the  greatest  blessings 
a  people,  My  Lords,  can  enjoy,  is  liberty;  but 
every  good  in  this  life  has  its  alloy  of  evil.  Li- 
centiousness is  the  alloy  of  liberty.  It  is  an  ebul- 
lition, an  excrescence;  it  is  a  speck  upon  the  eye 
of  the  political  body,  but  which  I  can  never  touch 

157 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

but  with  a  gentle,  with  a  trembling  hand,  lest  I 
destroy  the  body,  lest  I  injure  the  eye  upon  which 
it  is  apt  to  appear. 

"  There  is  such  a  connection  between  licen- 
tiousness and  liberty,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  cor- 
rect the  one  without  dangerously  wounding  the 
other:  it  is  extremely  hard  to  distinguish  the  true 
limit  between  them :  like  a  changeable  silk,  we  can 
easily  see  there  are  two  different  colors,  but  we 
cannot  easily  discover  where  the  one  ends,  or 
where  the  other  begins." 

I  confess  I  cannot  help  agreeing  with  this 
learned  author.     The  danger  of  touching  the 

PRESS  IS  THE  DIFFICULTY  OF  MARKING  ITS  LIMITS. 

My  learned  friend,  who  has  just  gone  out  of 
court,  has  drawn  no  line  and  unfolded  no  princi- 
ple. He  has  not  told  us,  if  this  book  is  con- 
demned, what  book  may  be  written.  If  I  may 
not  write  against  the  existence  of  a  monarchy,  and 
recommend  a  republic,  may  I  write  against  any 
part  of  the  Government?  May  I  say  that  we 
should  be  better  without  a  House  of  Lords,  or  a 
House  of  Commons,  or  a  Court  of  Chancery,  or 
any  other  given  part  of  our  establishment?  Or  if, 
as  has  been  hinted,  a  work  may  be  libelous  for 
stating  even  legal  matter  with  sarcastic  phrase, 
158 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

the  difficulty  becomes  the  greater,  and  the  liberty 
of  the  press  more  impossible  to  define. 

The  same  author,  pursuing  the  subject,  and 
speaking  of  the  fall  of  Roman  liberty,  says,  "But 
this  sort  of  liberty  came  soon  after  to  be  called 
licentiousness;  for  we  are  told  that  Augustus, 
after  having  established  his  empire,  restored  or- 
der in  Rome  by  restraining  licentiousness.  God 
forbid  we  should  in  this  country  have  order  re- 
stored or  licentiousness  restrained,  at  so  dear  a 
rate  as  the  people  of  Rome  paid  for  it  to  Au- 
gustus. 

"  Let  us  consider,  My  Lords,  that  arbitrary 
power  has  seldom  or  never  been  introduced  into 
any  country  at  once.  It  must  be  introduced  by 
slow  degrees,  and  as  it  were  step  by  step,  lest  the 
people  should  see  its  approach.  The  barriers 
and  fences  of  the  people's  liberty  must  be  plucked 
up  one  by  one,  and  some  plausible  pretenses  must 
be  found  for  removing  or  hoodwinking,  one  after 
another,  those  sentries  who  are  posted  by  the  con- 
stitution of  a  free  country  for  warning  the  people 
of  their  danger.  When  these  preparatory  steps 
are  once  made,  the  people  may  then,  indeed,  with 
regret,  see  slavery  and  arbitrary  power  making 
long  strides  over  their  land ;  but  it  will  be  too  late 

159 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

to  think  of  preventing  or  avoiding  the  impending 
ruin. 

"  The  stage,  my  Lords,  and  the  press,  are 
two  of  our  out-sentries;  if  we  remove  them,  if 
we  hoodwink  them,  if  we  throw  them  in  fetters, 
the  enemy  may  surprise  us." 

Gentlemen,  this  subject  was  still  more  lately 
put  in  the  justest  and  most  forcible  light  by  a 
noble  person  high  in  the  magistracy,  whose  mind 
is  not  at  all  tuned  to  the  introduction  of  disorder 
by  improper  popular  excesses:  I  mean  Lord 
Loughborough,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas.  I  believe  I  can  answer  for  the 
correctness  of  my  note,  which  I  shall  follow  up 
with  the  opinion  of  another  member  of  the  Lords' 
House  of  Parliament,  the  present  Earl  Stan- 
hope ;  or  rather,  I  shall  take  Lord  Stanhope  first, 
as  His  Lordship  introduces  the  subject  by  advert- 
ing to  this  argument  of  Lord  Loughborough's. 
"If,"  says  Lord  Stanhope,  "our  boasted  liberty 
of  the  press  were  to  consist  only  in  the  liberty  to 
write  in  praise  of  the  Constitution,  this  is  a  liberty 
enjoyed  under  many  arbitrary  governments.  I 
suppose  it  would  not  be  deemed  quite  an  unpar- 
donable offense,  even  by  the  Empress  of  Russia, 
if  any  man  were  to  take  into  his  head  to  write  a 
panegyric  upon  the  Russian  form  of  govern- 
160 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

ment.  Such  a  liberty  as  that  might  therefore 
properly  be  termed  the  Russian  liberty  of  the 
press.  But  the  English  liberty  of  the  press  is  of 
a  very  different  description:  for,  by  the  law  of 
England,  it  is  not  prohibited  to  publish  specula- 
tive works  upon  the  Constitution,  whether  they 
contain  praise  or  censure." — (Lord  Stanhope's 
"Defense  of  the  Libel  Bill.") 

You  see,  therefore,  as  far  as  the  general  prin- 
ciple goes,  I  am  supported  by  the  opinion  of 
Lord  Stanhope,  for  otherwise  the  noble  Lord 
has  written  a  libel  himself,  by  exciting  other  peo- 
ple to  write  whatever  they  may  think,  be  it  good 
or  evil,  of  the  Constitution  of  the  country.  As  to 
the  other  high  authority,  Lord  Loughborough,  I 
will  read  what  applies  to  this  subject — "  Every 
man,"  said  Lord  Loughborough,  "  may  publish 
at  his  discretion  his  opinions  concerning  forms 
and  systems  of  government.  If  they  be  wise  and 
enlightening,  the  world  will  gain  by  them;  if  they 
be  weak  and  absurd,  they  will  be  laughed 
at  and  forgotten ;  and  if  they  be  bona  fide,  they 
cannot  be  criminal,  however  erroneous.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  purpose  and  the  direction 
may  give  a  different  turn  to  writings  whose  com- 
mon construction  is  harmless,  or  even  meritorious. 

"  Suppose  men,  assembled  in  disturbance  of 

161 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  peace,  to  pull  down  mills  or  turnpikes,  or  to 
do  any  other  mischief,  and  that  a  mischievous  per- 
son should  disperse  among  them  an  excitation  to 
the  planned  mischief  known  to  both  writer  and 
reader,  To  your  tents,  O  Israel;  that  publication 
would  be  criminal; — not  as  a  libel,  not  as  an  ab- 
stract writing,  but  as  an  act;  and  the  act  being 
the  crime,  it  must  be  stated  as  a  fact  extrinsic  on 
the  record;  for  otherwise  a  court  of  error  could 
have  no  jurisdiction  but  over  the  natural  con- 
struction of  the  writing;  nor  would  the  defend- 
ant have  any  notice  of  such  matter  at  the  trial, 
without  a  charge  on  the  record.  To  give  the  jury 
cognizance  of  any  matter  beyond  the  construc- 
tion of  the  writing,  the  averment  should  be,  in 
the  case  as  I  have  instanced,  that  certain  persons 
were,  as  I  have  described,  assembled;  and  that 
the  publisher,  intending  to  excite  these  persons 
so  assembled,  wrote  so  and  so.  Here  the  crime 
is  complete,  and  consists  in  an  overt  act  of  wick- 
edness evidenced  by  a  writing" 

In  answer  to  all  these  authorities,  the  Attor- 
ney-general may  say  that  if  Mr.  Paine  had  writ- 
ten his  observations  with  the  views  of  those  high 
persons,  and  under  other  circumstances,  he  would 
be  protected  and  acquitted ; — to  which  I  can  only 
answer,  that  no  facts  or  circumstances  attending 
162 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

his  work  are  either  charged  or  proved; — that  you 
have  no  jurisdiction  whatever  but  over  the  na- 
tural construction  of  the  work  before  you,  and 
tkat  I  am  therefore  brought  without  a  flaw  to  the 
support  of  the  passages  which  are  the  particular 
subject  of  complaint. 

Gentlemen,  I  am  not  unmindful  how  long  I 
have  already  trespassed  upon  your  patience ;  and, 
recollecting  the  nature  of  the  human  mind,  and 
how  much,  for  a  thousand  reasons,  I  have  to 
struggle  against  at  this  moment,  I  shall  not  be 
disconcerted  if  any  of  you  should  appear  anxious 
to  retire  from  the  pain  of  hearing  me  further.  It 
has  been  said  in  the  newspapers,  that  my  vanity 
has  forwarded  my  zeal  in  this  cause ; — but  I  might 
appeal  even  to  the  authors  of  those  paragraphs 
whether  a  situation  ever  existed  which  vanity 
would  have  been  fonder  to  fly  from — the  task  of 
speaking  against  every  known  prepossession — 
with  every  countenance,  as  it  were,  planted  and 
lifted  up  against  me. 

But  I  stand  at  this  bar  to  give  to  a  criminal 
arraigned  before  it  the  defense  which  the  law 
of  the  country  entitles  him  to.  If  any  of  my 
arguments  be  indecent,  or  unfit  for  the  Court  to 
hear,  the  noble  Judge  presides  to  interrupt  them ; 
if  all,  or  any  of  them,  are  capable  of  an  answer, 

163 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

they  will  be  answered ;  or  if  they  be  so  unfounded 
in  your  own  minds,  who  are  to  judge  them,  as 
not  to  call  for  refutation,  your  verdict  in  a  mo- 
ment will  overthrow  all  that  has  been  said.  We 
shall  then  have  all  discharged  our  duties.  It  is 
your  unquestionable  province  to  judge,  and  mine 
not  less  unquestionably  to  address  your  judg- 
ments. 

When  the  noble  Judge  and  myself  were  coun- 
sel for  Lord  George  Gordon  in  1781,  it  was  not 
considered  by  that  jury,  nor  imputed  to  us  by 
anybody,  that  we  were  contending  for  the  privi- 
leges of  overawing  the  House  of  Commons,  or 
recommending  the  conflagration  of  this  city.  I 
am  doing  the  same  duty  now  which  My  Lord  and 
I  then  did  in  concert  together ;  and,  whatever  may 
become  of  the  cause,  I  expect  to  be  heard;  con- 
scious that  no  just  obloquy  can  be,  or  will  in  the 
end  be,  cast  upon  me  for  having  done  my  duty  in 
the  manner  I  have  endeavored  to  perform  it. — 
Sir,  I  shall  name  you  presently.* 

Gentlemen,  I  come  now  to  observe  on  the 
passages  selected  by  the  information;  and  with 
regard  to  the  first,  I  shall  dispose  of  it  in  a  mo- 
ment. 

*This  expression  was  provoked  by  the  conduct  of  one  of  the 
jury,  which  this  rebuke  put  an  end  to. — Ed. 

164 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

"  All  hereditary  government  is  in  its  nature 
tyranny.  An  heritable  crown,  or  an  heritable 
throne,  or  by  what  other  fanciful  name  such 
things  may  be  called,  have  no  other  significant 
explanation  than  that  mankind  are  heritable 
property.  To  inherit  a  government  is  to  inherit 
the  people  as  if  they  were  flocks  and  herds." 

And  is  it  to  be  endured,  says  the  Attorney- 
general,  that  the  people  of  this  country  are  to  be 
told  that  they  are  driven  like  oxen  or  sheep  ?  Cer- 
tainly not.  I  am  of  opinion  that  a  more  danger- 
ous doctrine  cannot  be  instilled  into  the  people 
of  England.  But  who  instills  such  a  doctrine? 
I  deny  that  it  is  instilled  by  Mr.  Paine.  When 
he  maintains  that  hereditary  monarchy  inherits 
a  people  like  flocks  and  herds,  it  is  clear  from  the 
context  (which  is  kept  out  of  view)  that  he  is 
combating  the  proposition  in  Mr.  Burke's  book, 
which  asserts  that  the  hereditary  monarchy  of 
England  is  fastened  upon  the  people  of  England 
by  indissoluble  compact. 

Mr.  Paine,  on  the  contrary,  asserts  the  King 
of  England  to  be  the  magistrate  of  the  people, 
existing  by  their  consent,  which  is  utterly  incom- 
patible with  their  being  driven  like  herds.  His 
argument,  therefore,  is  this,  and  it  retorts  on  his 
adversary:  he  says,  Such  a  king  as  you,  Mr. 

165 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

Burke,  represent  the  King  of  England  to  be, 
inheriting  the  people  by  virtue  of  conquest,  or  of 
some  compact,  which,  having  once  existed,  can- 
not be  dissolved  while  the  original  terms  of  it  are 
kept  is  an  inheritance  like  flocks  and  herds.  But 
I  deny  that  to  be  the  King  of  England's  title. 
He  is  the  magistrate  of  the  people ~,  and  that  title 
I  respect. 

It  is  to  your  own  imaginary  King  of  Eng- 
land, therefore,  and  not  to  His  Majesty,  that 
your  unfounded  innuendoes  apply.  It  is  the  mon- 
archs  of  Russia  and  Prussia,  and  all  governments 
fastened  upon  unwilling  subjects  by  hereditary 
indefeasible  titles,  who  are  stigmatized  by  Paine 
as  inheriting  the  people  like  flocks.  The  sentence, 
therefore,  must  either  be  taken  in  the  pure  ab- 
stract, and  then  it  is  not  only  merely  speculative, 
but  the  application  of  it  to  our  own  Government 
fails  altogether,  or  it  must  be  taken  connected 
with  the  matter  which  constitutes  the  application, 
and  then  it  is  Mr.  Burke's  King  of  England, 
and  not  His  Majesty,  whose  title  is  denied. 

I  pass,  therefore,  to  the  next  passage,  which 
appears  to  be  an  extraordinary  selection.  It  is 
taken  at  a  leap  from  page  twenty-one  to  page 
forty-seven,  and  breaks  in  at  the  words  "  This 
convention."  The  sentence  selected  stands  thus: 
166 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

"  This  Convention  met  at  Philadelphia  in  May, 
1787,  of  which  General  Washington  was  elected 
president.  He  was  not  at  that  time  connected 
with  any  of  the  state  governments,  or  with  Con- 
gress. He  delivered  up  his  commission  when  the 
war  ended,  and  since  then  had  lived  a  private 
citizen. 

"  The  Convention  went  deeply  into  all  the 
subjects;  and  having,  after  a  variety  of  debate 
and  investigation,  agreed  among  themselves  upon 
the  several  parts  of  a  federal  constitution,  the 
next  question  was,  the  manner  of  giving  it  au- 
thority and  practise. 

"For  this  purpose  they  did  not,  like  a  cabal 
of  courtiers,  send  for  a  Dutch  stadtholder,  or  a 
German  elector;  but  they  referred  the  whole  mat- 
ter to  the  sense  and  interest  of  the  country." 

This  sentence,  standing  thus  by  itself,  may 
appear  to  be  a  mere  sarcasm  on  King  William, 
upon  those  who  effected  the  Revolution,  and 
upon  the  Revolution  itself,  without  any  reason- 
ing or  deduction;  but  when  the  context  and  se- 
quel are  looked  at  and  compared,  it  will  appear 
to  be  a  serious  historical  comparison  between  the 
Revolution  effected  in  England  in  1688  and  the 
late  one  in  America  when  she  established  her  in- 

167 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

dependence;  and  no  man  can  doubt  that  his  judg- 
ment on  that  comparison  was  sincere. 

But  where  is  the  libel  on  the  Constitution? 
For  whether  King  William  was  brought  over 
here  by  the  sincerest  and  justest  motives  of  the 
whole  people  of  England,  each  man  acting  for 
himself,  or  from  the  motives  and  through  the 
agencies  imputed  by  the  defendant,  it  signifies 
not  one  farthing  at  this  time  of  day  to  the  estab- 
lishment itself.  Blackstone  properly  warns  us 
not  to  fix  our  obedience  or  affection  to  the  gov- 
ernment on  the  motives  of  our  ancestors,  or  the 
rectitude  of  their  proceedings,  but  to  be  satisfied 
with  what  is  established.  This  is  safe  reasoning, 
and,  for  my  own  part,  I  should  not  be  differently 
affected  to  the  Constitution  of  my  country,  which 
my  own  understanding  approved,  whether  angels 
or  demons  had  given  it  birth. 

Do  any  of  you  love  the  Reformation  the  less 
because  Henry  VIII  was  the  author  of  it? 
or  because  lust  and  poverty,  not  religion,  were 
his  motives?  He  had  squandered  the  treasures 
of  his  father,  and  he  preferred  Anne  Boleyn  to 
his  queen:  these  were  the  causes  which  produced 
it.  What  then?  Does  that  affect  the  purity  of 
our  reformed  religion?  Does  it  undermine  its 
establishment,  or  shake  the  King's  title,  to  the 
168 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

exclusion  of  those  who  held  by  the  religion  it  had 
abolished?  Will  the  Attorney-general  affirm  that 
I  could  be  convicted  of  a  libel  for  a  volume  of 
asperity  against  Henry  VIII,  merely  be- 
cause he  effected  the  Reformation;  and  if  not, 
why  against  King  William,  who  effected  the 
Revolution?     Where  is  the  line  to  be  drawn? 

Are  one,  two,  or  three  centuries  to  constitute 
the  statute  of  limitation?  Nay,  do  not  our  own 
historians  detail  this  very  cabal  of  courtiers  from 
the  records  of  our  own  country?  If  you  will  turn 
to  Hume's  "  History,"  volume  viii,  page  188, 
etc.,  etc.,  you  will  find  that  he  states,  at 
great  length,  the  whole  detail  of  intrigues  which 
paved  the  way  for  the  Revolution,  and  the  inter- 
ested coalition  of  parties  which  gave  it  effect. 

But  what  of  all  this,  concerning  the  motives 
of  parties,  which  is  recorded  by  Hume?  The 
question  is,  What  is  the  thing  brought  about? — 
Not,  how  it  was  brought  about.  If  it  stands, 
as  Blackstone  argues  it,  upon  the  consent  of  our 
ancestors,  followed  up  by  our  own,  no  individual 
can  withdraw  his  obedience.  If  he  dislikes  the 
establishment,  let  him  seek  elsewhere  for  another ; 
I  am  not  contending  for  uncontrolled  conduct, 
but  for  freedom  of  opinion. 

With  regard  to  what  has  been  stated  of  the 
i-u  169 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

Edwards  and  Henries,  and  the  other  princes  un- 
der which  the  author  can  only  discover  "restric- 
tions on  power,  but  nothing  of  a  constitution/' 
surely  my  friend  is  not  in  earnest  when  he  selects 
that  passage  as  a  libel. 

Paine  insists  that  there  was  no  constitution 
under  these  princes,  and  that  English  liberty  was 
obtained  from  usurped  power  by  the  struggles 
of  the  people.  So  say  I.  And  I  think  it  for  the 
honor  and  advantage  of  the  country  that  it  should 
be  known.  Was  there  any  freedom  after  the 
original  establishment  of  the  Normans  by  con- 
quest? Was  not  the  Magna  Charta  wrested 
from  John  by  open  force  of  arms  at  Runnymede? 
Was  it  not  again  re-enacted  while  menacing  arms 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  people?  Were  not  its 
stipulations  broken  through,  and  two-and-forty 
times  re-enacted  by  Parliament,  upon  the  firm 
demand  of  the  people  in  the  following  reigns? 
I  protest  it  fills  me  with  astonishment  to  hear 
these  truths  brought  in  question. 

I  was  formerly  called  upon,  under  the  disci- 
pline of  a  college,  to  maintain  them,  and  was  re- 
warded for  being  thought  to  have  successfully 
maintained  that  our  present  Constitution  was  by 
no  means  a  remnant  of  Saxon  liberty,  nor  any 
other  institution  of  liberty,  but  the  pure  conse- 
170 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

quence  of  the  oppression  of  the  Norman  tenures, 
which,  spreading  the  spirit  of  freedom  from  one 
end  of  the  kingdom  to  another,  enabled  our  brave 
fathers,  inch  by  inch,  not  to  reconquer,  but  for  the 
first  time  to  obtain  those  privileges  which  are  the 
unalienable  inheritance  of  all  mankind. 

But  why  do  we  speak  of  the  Edwards  and 
Henries,  when  Hume  himself  expressly  says,  not- 
withstanding all  we  have  heard  to-day  of  the  an- 
tiquity of  our  Constitution,  that  our  monarchy 
was  nearly  absolute  till  the  middle  of  the  last  cen- 
tury? It  is  his  "Essay  on  the  Liberty  of  the 
Press,"  vol.  1,  page  15 — 

"All  absolute  governments,  and  such  in  a 
great  measure  was  England  till  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  notwithstanding  the  numerous  pane- 
gyrics on  ancient  English  liberty,  must  very 
much  depend  on  the  administration." 

This  is  Hume's  opinion;  the  conclusion  of  a 
grave  historian  from  all  that  he  finds  recorded  as 
the  materials  for  history ;  and  shall  it  be  said  that 
Mr.  Paine  is  to  be  punished  for  writing  to-day 
what  was  before  written  by  another,  who  is  now 
a  distinguished  classic  in  the  language?  All  the 
verdicts  in  the  world  will  not  make  such  injus- 
tice palatable  to  an  impartial  public  or  to  pos- 
terity. 

171 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

The  next  passage  arraigned  is  this  (page  56)  : 
"  The  attention  of  the  Government  of  England 
(for  I  rather  choose  to  call  it  by  this  name  than 
the  English  Government)  appears,  since  its  poli- 
tical connection  with  Germany,  to  have  been  so 
completely  engrossed  and  absorbed  by  foreign 
affairs,  and  the  means  of  raising  taxes,  that  it 
seems  to  exist  for  no  other  purposes.  Domestic 
concerns  are  neglected ;  and  with  respect  to  regu- 
lar law,  there  is  scarcely  such  a  thing." 

That  the  Government  of  this  country  has,  in 
consequence  of  its  connection  with  the  Continent, 
and  the  Continental  wars  which  it  has  occasioned, 
been  continually  loaded  with  grievous  taxes,  no 
man  can  dispute;  and  I  appeal  to  your  justice 
whether  this  subject  has  not  been,  for  years  to- 
gether, the  constant  topic  of  unreproved  declama- 
tion and  grumbling. 

As  to  what  he  says  with  regard  to  there 
hardly  existing  such  a  thing  as  regular  law,  he 
speaks  in  the  abstract  of  the  complexity  of  our 
system ;  he  does  not  arraign  the  administration  of 
justice  in  its  practise.  But  with  regard  to  criti- 
cisms and  strictures  on  the  general  system  of  our 
Government,  it  has  been  echoed  over  and  over 
again  by  various  authors,  and  even  from  the  pul- 
pits, of  our  country.  I  have  a  sermon  in  court, 
172 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

written  during  the  American  War  by  a  person  of 
great  eloquence  and  piety,  in  which  he  looks  for- 
ward to  an  exemption  from  the  intolerable  griev- 
ances of  our  old  legal  system  in  the  infant  estab- 
lishment of  the  New  World : — 

"  It  may  be  in  the  purposes  of  Providence, 
on  yon  western  shores,  to  raise  the  bulwark  of  a 
purer  reformation  than  ever  Britain  patronized; 
to  found  a  less  burdensome,  more  auspicious, 
stable,  and  incorruptible  government  than  ever 
Britain  has  enjoyed;  and  to  establish  there  a  sys- 
tem of  law  more  just  and  simple  in  its  principles, 
less  intricate,  dubious,  and  dilatory  in  its  pro- 
ceedings, more  mild  and  equitable  in  its  sanctions, 
more  easy  and  more  certain  in  its  execution; 
wherein  no  man  can  err  through  ignorance  of 
what  concerns  him,  or  want  justice  through  pov- 
erty or  weakness,  or  escape  it  by  legal  artifice,  or 
civil  privileges,  or  interposing  power;  wherein 
the  rule  of  conduct  shall  not  be  hidden  or  dis- 
guised in  the  language  of  principles  and  customs 
that  died  with  the  barbarism  which  gave  them 
birth;  wherein  hasty  formulas  shall  not  dissipate 
the  reverence  that  is  due  to  the  tribunals  and 
transactions  of  justice;  wherein  obsolete  pre- 
scripts shall  not  pervert,  nor  entangle,  nor  impede 
the  administration  of  it,  nor  in  any  instance  ex- 

173 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

pose  it  to  derision  or  to  disregard;  wherein  mis- 
representation shall  have  no  share  in  deciding 
upon  right  and  truth;  and  under  which  no  man 
shall  grow  great  by  the  wages  of  chicanery,  or 
thrive  by  the  quarrels  that  are  ruinous  to  his  em- 
ployers." 

This  is  ten  times  stronger  than  Mr.  Paine; 
but  who  ever  thought  of  prosecuting  Mr. 
Cappe?* 

In  various  other  instances  you  will  find  de- 
fects in  our  jurisprudence  pointed  out  and  la- 
mented, and  not  seldom  by  persons  called  upon 
by  their  situations  to  deliver  the  law  in  the  seat 
of  magistracy ;  therefore,  the  author's  general  ob- 
servation does  not  appear  to  be  that  species  of  at- 
tack upon  the  magistracy  of  the  country  as  to 
fall  within  the  description  of  a  libel. 

With  respect  to  the  two  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, I  believe  I  shall  be  able  to  show  you  that 
the  very  person  who  introduced  this  controversy, 
and  who  certainly  is  considered  by  those  who  now 
administer  the  Government,  as  a  man  usef  uly  de- 
voted to  maintain  the  Constitution  of  the  country 
in  the  present  crisis,  has  himself  made  remarks 
upon  these  assemblies,  that  upon  comparison  you 
will  think  more  severe  than  those  which  are  the 

*A  late  eminent  and  pious  minister  at  York. 

174 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

subject  of  the  Attorney-general's  animadversion. 
The  passage  in  Mr.  Paine  runs  thus — 

'  With  respect  to  the  two  Houses  of  which  the 
English  Parliament  is  composed,  they  appear  to 
be  effectually  influenced  into  one,  and,  as  a  legis- 
lature, to  have  no  temper  of  its  own. 

"  The  Minister,  whoever  he  at  any  time  may 
be,  touches  it  as  with  an  opium  wand,  and  it 
sleeps  obedience. 

"  But  if  we  look  at  the  distinct  abilities  of  the 
two  Houses,  the  difference  will  appear  so  great 
as  to  show  the  inconsistency  of  placing  power 
where  there  can  be  no  certainty  of  the  judgment 
to  use  it.  Wretched  as  the  state  of  representa- 
tion is  in  England,  it  is  manhood  compared  with 
what  is  called  the  House  of  Lords;  and  so  little 
is  this  nicknamed  House  regarded  that  the  people 
scarcely  inquire  at  any  time  what  it  is  doing.  It 
appears  also  to  be  most  under  influence,  and  the 
furthest  removed  from  the  general  interest  of  the 
nation." 

The  conclusion  of  the  sentence,  and  which  was 
meant  by  Paine  as  evidence  of  the  previous  as- 
sertion, the  Attorney-general  has  omitted  in  the 
information  and  in  his  speech;  it  is  this:  "  In  the 
debate  on  engaging  in  the  Russian  and  Turkish 
War,  the  majority  in  the  House  of  Peers  in  favor 

175 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

of  it  was  upwards  of  ninety,  when  in  the  other 
House,  which  is  more  than  double  its  numbers, 
the  majority  was  sixty-three." 

The  terms,  however,  in  which  Mr.  Burke 
speaks  of  the  House  of  Lords  are  still  more  ex- 
pressive: "  It  is  something  more  than  a  century 
ago  since  we  voted  the  House  of  Lords  useless. 
They  have  now  voted  themselves  so,  and  the  whole 
hope  of  reformation  (speaking  of  the  House  of 
Commons)  is  cast  upon  us." 

This  sentiment  Mr.  Burke  not  only  expressed 
in  his  place  in  Parliament,  where  no  man  can  call 
him  to  an  account;  but  it  has  been  since  repeat- 
edly printed  among  his  works.  Indeed  his 
opinion  of  both  the  Houses  of  Parliament, 
which  I  am  about  to  read  to  you,  was  originally 
published  in  a  separate  pamphlet,  and  applied  to 
the  settled  habitual  abuses  of  these  high  assem- 
blies. Remember,  I  do  not  use  them  as  argumen- 
ta  ad  hominem,  or  ad  invidiam,  against  the  au- 
thor; for  if  I  did,  it  could  be  no  defense  of  Mr. 
Paine.  But  I  use  them  as  high  authority,  the 
work*  having  been  the  just  foundation  of  a  sub- 
stantial and  lasting  reputation.    Would  to  God 

*Mr.  Burke's  "Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discon- 
tents," published  in  1775. 

176 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

that  any  part  of  it  were  capable  of  being  denied 
or  doubted! 

"  Against  the  being  of  Parliament  I  am  satis- 
fied no  designs  have  ever  been  entertained  since 
the  Revolution.  Everyone  must  perceive  that  it 
is  strongly  the  interest  of  the  Court  to  have  some 
second  cause  interposed  between  the  Ministers 
and  the  people.  The  gentlemen  of  the  House  of 
Commons  have  an  interest  equally  strong  in  sus- 
taining the  part  of  that  intermediate  cause. 
However  they  may  hire  out  the  usufruct  of  their 
voices,  they  never  will  part  with  the  fee  and  in- 
heritance. Accordingly,  those  who  have  been  o{ 
the  most  known  devotion  to  the  will  and  pleasure 
of  a  court,  have  at  the  same  time  been  most  for- 
ward in  asserting  an  high  authority  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  When  they  knew  who  were  to 
use  that  authority,  and  how  it  was  to  be  employed, 
they  thought  it  never  could  be  carried  too  far. 
It  must  be  always  the  wish  of  an  unconstitutional 
statesman,  that  a  House  of  Commons  who  are 
entirely  dependent  upon  him,  should  have  every 
right  of  the  people  dependent  upon  their  pleas- 
ure.   For  it  was  discovered  that  the  forms 

OF  A  FREE  AND  THE  ENDS  OF  AN  ARBITRARY  GOV- 
ERNMENT WERE  THINGS  NOT  ALTOGETHER  IN- 
COMPATIBLE. 

177 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

"  The  power  of  the  Crown,  almost  dead  and 
rotten  as  prerogative,  has  grown  up  anew,  with 
much  more  strength  and  far  less  odium,  under 
the  name  of  influence.  An  influence  which  oper- 
ates without  noise  and  violence — which  converts 
the  very  antagonist  into  the  instrument  of  power 
— which  contains  in  itself  a  perpetual  principle 
of  growth  and  renovation;  and  which  the  dis- 
tresses and  the  prosperity  of  the  country  equally 
tend  to  augment,  was  an  admirable  substitute 
for  a  prerogative  that,  being  only  the  offspring 
of  antiquated  prejudices,  had  moulded  in  its  ori- 
ginal stamina  irresistible  principles  of  decay  and 
dissolution. 

"  The  ignorance  of  the  people  is  a  bottom 
but  for  a  temporary  system;  but  the  interest 
of  active  men  in  the  state  is  a  foundation  both 
perpetual  and  infallible." 

Mr.  Burke,  therefore,  in  page  sixty-six 
speaking  of  the  same  Court  party,  says — 

"  Parliament  was  indeed  the  great  object  of 
all  these  politics,  the  end  at  which  they  aimed, 
as  well  as  the  instrument  by  which  they  were 
to  operate." 

And  pursuing  the  subject  in  page  seventy, 
proceeds  as  follows: 

"  They  who  will  not  conform  their  conduct 
178 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

to  the  public  good,  and  cannot  support  it  by  the 
prerogative  of  the  Crown,  have  adopted  a  new 
plan.  They  have  totally  abandoned  the  shattered 
and  old-fashioned  fortress  of  prerogative,  and 
made  a  lodgment  in  the  stronghold  of  Parliament 
itself.  If  they  have  any  evil  design  to  which 
there  is  no  ordinary  legal  power  commensurate, 
they  bring  it  into  Parliament.  There  the  whole 
is  executed  from  the  beginning  to  the  end;  and 
the  power  of  obtaining  their  object  absolute;  and 
the  safety  in  the  proceeding  perfect;  no  rules  to 
confine,  nor  after-reckonings  to  terrify.  For 
Parliament  cannot  with  any  great  propriety 
punish  others  for  things  in  which  they  themselves 
have  been  accomplices.  Thus  its  control  upon 
the  executory  power  is  lost,  because  it  is  made  to 
partake  in  every  considerable  act  of  government : 
and  impeachment,  that  great  guardian  of  the 
purity  of  the  Constitution,  is  in  danger  of  being 
lost  even  to  the  idea  of  it. 

"  Until  this  time,  the  opinion  of  the  people, 
through  the  power  of  an  Assembly,  still  in  some 
sort  popular,  led  to  the  greatest  honors  and 
emoluments  in  the  gift  of  the  Crown.  Now  the 
principle  is  reversed ;  and  the  favor  of  the  Court 
is  the  only  sure  way  of  obtaining  and  holding 

179 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

those  honors  which  ought  to  be  in  the  disposal 

OF  THE  PEOPLE." 

Mr.  Burke,  in  page  one  hundred,  observes 
with  great  truth  that  the  mischiefs  he  complained 
of  did  not  at  all  arise  from  the  monarchy,  but 
from  the  Parliament,  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  people  to  look  to  it.  He  says,  "  The  distem- 
pers of  monarchy  were  the  great  subjects  of  ap- 
prehension and  redress  in  the  last  century;  in 
this,  the  distempers  of  Parliament." 

Not  the  distempers  of  Parliament  in  this  year 
or  the  last,  but  in  this  century — i.e.,  its  settled 
habitual  distemper.  "It  is  not  in  Parliament 
alone  that  the  remedy  for  parliamentary  disor- 
ders can  be  completed;  and  hardly  indeed  can  it 
begin  there.  Until  a  confidence  in  Government 
is  re-established,  the  people  ought  to  be  excited 
to  a  more  strict  and  detailed  attention  to  the 
conduct  of  their  representatives.  Standards  for 
judging  more  systematically  upon  their  conduct 
ought  to  be  settled  in  the  meetings  of  counties 
and  corporations,  and  frequent  and  correct  lists 
of  the  voters  in  all  important  questions  ought  to 
be  procured. 

"  By  such  means  something  may  be  done, 
since  it  may  appear  who  those  are  that,  by  an  in- 
discriminate support  of  all  administrations,  have 
180 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

totally  banished  all  integrity  and  confidence  out 
of  public  proceedings;  have  confounded  the  best 
men  with  the  worst ;  and  weakened  and  dissolved, 
instead  of  strengthening  and  compacting,  the 
general  frame  of  Government." 

I  wish  it  was  possible  to  read  the  whole  of 
this  most  important  volume — but  the  conse- 
quences of  these  truths  contained  in  it  were  all 
eloquently  summed  up  by  the  author  in  his  speech 
upon  the  reform  of  the  household. 

"  But  what  I  confess  was  uppermost  with 
me,  what  I  bent  the  whole  course  of  my  mind  to, 
was  the  reduction  of  that  corrupt  influence  which 
is  itself  the  perennial  spring  of  all  prodigality 
and  disorder;  which  loads  us  more  than  millions 
of  debt;  which  takes  away  vigor  from  our  arms, 
wisdom  from  our  councils,  and  every  shadow  of 
authority  and  credit  from  the  most  venerable 
parts  of  our  Constitution." 

The  same  important  truths  were  held  out  to 
the  whole  public,  upon  a  still  later  occasion,  by 
the  person  now  at  the  head  of  His  Majesty's 
councils;  and  so  high  (as  it  appears)  in  the  con- 
fidence of  the  nation.*  He,  not  in  the  abstract, 
like  the  author  before  you,  but  upon  the  spur  of 
the  occasion,  and  in  the  teeth  of  what  had  been 

•Mr.  Pitt 

181 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

just  declared  in  the  House  of  Commons,  came  to, 
and  acted  upon,  resolutions  which  are  contained 
in  this  book* — resolutions  pointed  to  the  purifica- 
tion of  a  Parliament  dangerously  corrupted  into 
the  very  state  described  by  Mr.  Paine. 

Remember  here,  too,  that  I  impute  no  censur- 
able conduct  to  Mr.  Pitt.  It  was  the  most  bril- 
liant passage  in  his  life,  and  I  should  have 
thought  his  life  a  better  one  if  he  had  continued 
uniform  in  the  support  of  opinions  which  it  is 
said  he  has  not  changed,  and  which  certainly  have 
had  nothing  to  change  them.  But  at  all  events, 
I  have  a  right  to  make  use  of  the  authority  of  his 
splendid  talents  and  high  situation,  not  merely 
to  protect  the  defendant,  but  the  public,  by  re- 
sisting the  precedent — that  what  one  man  may 
do  in  England  with  approbation  and  glory,  shall 
conduct  another  to  a  pillory  or  a  prison. 

The  abuses  pointed  out  by  the  man  before 
you  led  that  right  honorable  gentleman  to  asso- 
ciate with  many  others  of  high  rank,  under  the 
banners  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  whose  name 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  list,  and  to  pass  various 
public  resolutions  concerning  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  purifying  the  House  of  Commons;  and 
we  collect  the  plan  from  a  preamble  entered  in 

*Mr.  Erskine  took  up  a  book. — Ed. 

182 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

the  book:  "  Whereas  the  life,  liberty,  and  prop- 
erty of  every  man  is  or  may  be  affected  by  the 
law  of  the  land  in  which  he  lives,  and  every 
man  is  bound  to  pay  obedience  to  the  same. 

"  And  whereas,  by  the  Constitution  of  this 
kingdom,  the  right  of  making  laws  is  vested  in 
three  estates,  of  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  in 
Parliament,  assembled,  and  the  consent  of  all  the 
three  said  estates,  comprehending  the  whole  com- 
munity, is  necessary  to  make  laws  to  bind  the 
whole  community.  And  whereas  the  House  of 
Commons  represents  all  the  commons  of  the 
realm,  and  the  consent  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons binds  the  consent  of  all  the  commons  of 
the  realm,  and  in  all  cases  on  which  the  Legisla- 
ture is  competent  to  decide. 

"And  whereas  no  man  is,  or  can  be,  actually 
represented  who  hath  not  a  vote  in  the  election 
of  his  representative. 

"And  whereas  it  is  the  right  of  every  com- 
moner of  this  realm  (infants,  persons  of  insane 
mind,  and  criminals  incapacitated  by  law,  only 
excepted)  to  have  a  vote  in  the  election  of  the 
representative  who  is  to  give  his  consent  to  the 
making  of  laws  by  which  he  is  to  be  bound. 

"And  whereas  the  number  of  persons  who  are 
suffered  to  vote  for  electing  the  members  of  the 

183 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

House  of  Commons  do  not  at  this  time  amount 
to  one-sixth  part  of  the  whole  commons  of  this 
realm,  whereby  far  the  greater  part  of  the  said 
commons  are  deprived  of  their  right  to  elect  their 
representatives;  and  the  consent  of  the  majority 
of  the  whole  community  to  the  passing  of  laws 
is  given  by  persons  whom  they  have  not  dele- 
gated for  such  purposes;  and  to  which  the  said 
majority  have  not  in  fact  consented  by  them- 
selves or  by  their  representatives. 

"And  whereas  the  state  of  election  of  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Commons  hath  in  process  of 
time  so  grossly  deviated  from  its  simple  and  nat- 
ural principle  of  representation  and  equality, 
that  in  several  places  the  members  are  returned 
by  the  property  of  one  man;  that  the  smallest 
boroughs  send  as  many  members  as  the  largest 
counties,,  and  that  a  majority  of  the  representa- 
tives of  the  whole  nation  are  chosen  by  a  number 
of  votes  not  exceeding  twelve  thousand." 

These,  with  many  others  were  published,  not 
as  abstract  speculative  writings,,  but  within  a  few 
days  after  the  House  of  Commons  had  declared 
that  no  such  rights  existed,  and  that  no  alteration 
was  necessary  in  the  representation.  It  was  then 
that  they  met  at  the  Thatched  House  and  pub- 
lished their  opinions  and  resolutions  to  the  coun- 
184 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

try  at  large.  Were  any  of  them  prosecuted  for 
these  proceedings?  Certainly  not,  for  they  were 
legal  proceedings.  But  I  desire  you,  as  men  of 
honor  and  truth,  to  compare  all  this  with  Mr. 
Paine's  expression  of  the  Minister's  touching 
Parliament  with  his  opiate  wand,  and  let  equal 
justice  be  done — that  is  all  I  ask — let  all  be  pun- 
ished, or  none.  Do  not  let  Mr.  Paine  be  held  out 
to  the  contempt  of  the  public  upon  the  score  of 
his  observations  on  Parliament,  while  others  are 
enjoying  all  the  sweets  which  attend  a  supposed 
attachment  to  their  country,  who  have  not  only 
expressed  the  same  sentiments,  but  have  reduced 
their  opinions  to  practise. 

But  now  every  man  is  to  be  cried  down  for 
such  opinions.  I  observed  that  my  learned  friend 
significantly  raised  his  voice  in  naming  Mr. 
Home  Tooke,  as  if  to  connect  him  with  Paine, 
or  Paine  with  him.  This  is  exactly  the  same 
course  of  justice;  for,  after  all,  he  said  nothing  of 
Mr.  Tooke.  What  could  he  have  said,  but  that 
he  was  a  man  of  great  talents,  and  a  subscriber 
with  the  great  names  I  have  read  in  proceedings 
which  they  have  thought  fit  to  desert? 

Gentlemen,  let  others  hold  their  opinions,  and 
change  them  at  their  pleasure ;  I  shall  ever  main- 
tain it  to  be  the  dearest  privilege  of  the  people 
i-i5  185 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

of  Great  Britain  to  watch  over  everything  that 
affects  their  happiness,  either  in  the  system  of 
their  government  or  in  the  practise,  and  that  for 
this  purpose  the  press  must  be  free.  It  has  al- 
ways been  so,  and  much  evil  has  been  corrected 
by  it.  If  Government  finds  itself  annoyed  by  it, 
let  it  examine  its  own  conduct,  and  it  will  find 
the  cause;  let  it  amend  it,  and  it  will  find  the 
remedy. 

Gentlemen,  I  am  no  friend  to  sarcasms  in 
the  discussion  of  grave  subjects,  but  you  must 
take  writers  according  to  the  view  of  the  mind  at 
the  moment;  Mr.  Burke,  as  often  as  anybody, 
indulges  in  it.  Hear  his  reason,  in  his  speech  on 
reform,  for  not  taking  away  the  salaries  from 
Lords  who  attend  upon  the  British  Court.  "You 
would,"  said  he,  "have  the  Court  deserted  by  all 
the  nobility  of  the  kingdom. 

"  Sir,  the  most  serious  mischiefs  would  fol- 
low from  such  a  desertion.  Kings  are  naturally 
lovers  of  low  company ;  they  are  so  elevated  above 
all  the  rest  of  mankind,  that  they  must  look  upon 
all  their  subjects  as  on  a  level,  they  are  rather 
apt  to  hate  than  to  love  their  nobility  on  account 
of  the  occasional  resistance  to  their  will,  which 
will  be  made  by  their  virtue,  their  petulance,  or 
their  pride.  It  must  indeed  be  admitted  that 
186 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

many  of  the  nobility  are  as  perfectly  willing  to 
act  the  part  of  flatterers,  tale-bearers,  parasites, 
pimps,  and  buffoons,  as  any  of  the  lowest  and 
vilest  of  mankind  can  possibly  be.  But  they  are 
not  properly  qualified  for  this  object  of  their 
ambition.  The  want  of  a  regular  education,  and 
early  habits,  with  some  lurking  remains  of  their 
dignity,  will  never  permit  them  to  become  a 
match  for  an  Italian  eunuch,  a  mountebank,  a 
fiddler,  a  player,  or  any  regular  practitioner  of 
that  tribe.  The  Roman  emperors,  almost  from 
the  beginning,  threw  themselves  into  such  hands ; 
and  the  mischief  increased  every  day  till  its  de- 
cline and  its  final  ruin.  It  is,  therefore,  of  very 
great  importance  (provided  the  thing  is  not  over- 
done) to  contrive  such  an  establishment  as  must, 
almost  whether  a  prince  will  or  not,  bring  into 
daily  and  hourly  offices  about  his  person  a  great 
number  of  his  first  nobility;  and  it  is  rather  a 
useful  prejudice  that  gives  them  a  pride  in  such 
a  servitude :  though  they  are  not  much  the  better 
for  a  court,  a  court  will  be  much  the  better  for 
them.  I  have  therefore,  not  attempted  to  reform 
any  of  the  offices  of  honor  about  the  King's 
person." 

What  is  all  this  but  saying  that  a  king  is  an 
animal  so  incurably  addicted  to  low  company  as 

187 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

generally  to  bring  on  by  it  the  ruin  of  nations; 
but,  nevertheless,  he  is  to  be  kept  as  a  necessary 
evil,  and  his  propensities  bridled  by  surrounding 
him  with  a  parcel  of  miscreants  still  worse,  if  pos- 
sible, but  better  than  those  he  would  choose  for 
himself.  This,  therefore,  if  taken  by  itself,  would 
be  a  most  abominable  and  libelous  sarcasm  on 
kings  and  nobility ;  but  look  at  the  whole  speech, 
and  you  observe  a  great  system  of  regulation; 
and  no  man,  I  believe,  ever  doubted  Mr.  Burke's 
attachment  to  monarchy.  To  judge,  therefore, 
of  any  part  of  a  writing,  the  whole  must  be  read. 
With  this  same  view,  I  will  read  to  you  the 
beginning  of  Harrington's  "Oceana";  but  it  is 
impossible  to  name  this  well-known  author  with- 
out exposing  to  just  contempt  and  ridicule  the 
ignorant  or  profligate  misrepresentations  which 
are  vomited  forth  upon  the  public,  to  bear  down 
every  man  as  desperately  wicked  who  in  any  age 
or  country  has  countenanced  a  republic,  for  the 
mean  purpose  of  prejudging  this  trial. 

[Mr.  Erskine  took  up  a  book,  but  laid  it  down  again  without 
reading  from  it,  saying  something  to  the  gentleman  who  sat 
near  him,  in  a  low  voice,  which  the  reporter  did  not  hear.] 

Is  this  the  way  to  support  the  English  Con- 
stitution?   Are  these  the  means  by  which  Eng- 
lishmen are  to  be  taught  to  cherish  it?    I  say, 
188 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

if  the  man  upon  trial  were  stained  with  blood  in- 
stead of  ink,  if  he  were  covered  over  with  crimes 
which  human  nature  would  start  at  the  naming 
of,  the  means  employed  against  him  would  not  be 
the  less  disgraceful. 

For  this  notable  purpose,  then,  Harrington, 
not  above  a  week  ago*  was  handed  out  to  us  as 
a  low,  obscure  wretch,  involved  in  the  murder  of 
the  monarch  and  the  destruction  of  the  mon- 
archy, and  as  addressing  his  despicable  works  at 
the  shrine  of  a  usurper.  Yet  this  very  Harring- 
ton, this  low  blackguard,  was  descended  (you 
may  see  his  pedigree  at  the  Herald's  Office  for 
sixpence)  from  eight  dukes,  three  marquises, 
seventy  earls,  twenty-seven  viscounts,  and  thirty- 
six  barons,  sixteen  of  whom  were  Knights  of  the 
Garter — a  descent  which  I  think  would  save  a 
man  from  disgrace  in  any  of  the  circles  of  Ger- 
many. 

But  what  was  he  besides?  A  blood-stained 
ruffian  ?  Oh,  brutal  ignorance  of  the  history  of 
the  country!  He  was  the  most  affectionate  ser- 
vant of  Charles  I.  from  whom  he  never  concealed 
his  opinions ;  for  it  is  observed  by  Wood  that  the 
King  greatly  affected  his  company;  but  when 

*A  pamphlet  had  been  published  just  before,  putting  T.  Paine 
and  Harrington  on  the  same  footing — as  obscure  blackguards. 

189 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

they  happened  to  talk  of  a  commonwealth,  he 
would  scarcely  endure  it.  "  I  know  not,"  says 
Toland,  "which  most  to  commend:  the  King,  for 
trusting  an  honest  man,  though  a  republican;  or 
Harrington,  for  owning  his  principles  while  he 
served  a  king." 

But  did  his  opinions  affect  his  conduct?  Let 
history  again  answer.  He  preserved  his  fidelity 
to  his  unhappy  prince  to  the  very  last,  after  all 
his  fawning  courtiers  had  left  him  to  his  enraged 
subjects.  He  stayed  with  him  while  a  prisoner 
in  the  Isle  of  Wight;  came  up  by  stealth  to  fol- 
low the  fortunes  of  his  monarch  and  master; 
even  hid  himself  in  the  boot  of  the  coach  when  he 
was  conveyed  to  Windsor;  and,  ending  as  he 
began,  fell  into  his  arms  and  fainted  on  the  scaf- 
fold. 

After  Charles's  death,  the  "Oceana"  was  writ- 
ten, and  as  if  it  were  written  from  justice  and 
affection  to  his  memory ;  for  it  breathes  the  same 
noble  and  spirited  regard,  and  asserts  that  it  was 
not  Charles  that  brought  on  the  destruction  of 
the  monarchy,  but  the  feeble  and  ill-constituted 
nature  of  monarchy  itself. 

But  the  book  was  a  flattery  to  Cromwell. 
Once  more  and  finally  let  history  decide.  The 
"Oceana"  was  seized  by  the  Usurper  as  a  libel, 
190 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

and  the  way  it  was  recovered  is  remarkable.  I 
mention  it  to  show  that  Cromwell  was  a  wise  man 
in  himself,  and  knew  on  what  governments  must 
stand  for  their  support. 

Harrington  waited  on  the  Protector's  daugh- 
ter to  beg  for  his  book,  which  her  father  had 
taken,  and  on  entering  her  apartment,  snatched 
up  her  child  and  ran  away.  On  her  following 
him  with  surprise  and  terror,  he  turned  to  her 
and  said:  "  I  know  what  you  feel  as  a  mother, 
feel  then  for  me;  your  father  has  got  my  child" 
— meaning  the  "Oceana."  The  "Oceana"  was 
afterwards  restored  on  her  petition;  Cromwell 
answering  with  the  sagacity  of  a  sound  politician, 
"  Let  him  have  his  book ;  if  my  Government  is 
made  to  stand,  it  has  nothing  to  fear  from  paper 
shot."  He  said  true.  No  good  government 
will  ever  be  battered  by  paper  shot.  Montes- 
quieu says  that  "  In  a  free  nation  it  matters  not 
whether  individuals  reason  well  or  ill;  it  is  suf- 
ficient that  they  do  reason.  Truth  arises  from 
the  collision,  and  from  hence  springs  liberty, 
which  is  a  security  from  the  effect  of  reasoning." 
The  Attorney-general  has  read  extracts  from 
Mr.  Adam's  answer  to  this  book.  Let  others 
write  answers  to  it,  like  Mr.  Adam ;  I  am  not  in- 
sisting upon  the  infallibility  of  Mr.  Paine's  doc- 

191 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

trines;  if  they  are  erroneous,  let  them  be  an- 
swered, and  truth  will  spring  from  the  collision. 

Milton  wisely  says  that  a  disposition  in  a  na- 
tion to  this  species  of  controversy  is  no  proof 
of  sedition  or  degeneracy,  but  quite  the  reverse. 
[I  omitted  to  cite  the  passage  with  the  others.] 
In  speaking  of  this  subject  he  rises  into  that  in- 
expressibly sublime  style  of  writing  wholly  pe- 
culiar to  himself.  He  was  indeed  no  plagiary 
from  anything  human;  he  looked  up  for  light 
and  expression,  as  he  himself  wonderfully  de- 
scribes it,  by  devout  prayer  to  that  great  Being 
who  is  the  source  of  all  utterance  and  knowledge ; 
and  who  sendeth  out  His  seraphim  with  the  hal- 
lowed fire  of  His  altar  to  touch  and  purify  the 
lips  of  whom  He  pleases. 

"  When  the  cheerfulness  of  the  people,"  says 
this  mighty  poet,  "  is  so  sprightly  up  as  that  it 
has  not  only  wherewith  to  guard  well  its  own 
freedom  and  safety,  but  to  spare  and  to  bestow 
upon  the  solidest  and  sublimest  points  of  con- 
troversy and  new  invention,  it  betokens  us  not 
degenerated  nor  drooping  to  a  fatal  decay,  but 
casting  off  the  old  and  wrinkled  skin  of  corrup- 
tion, to  outlive  these  pangs,  and  wax  young 
again,  entering  the  glorious  ways  of  truth  and 
prosperous  virtue,  destined  to  become  great  and 
192 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

honorable  in  these  latter  ages.  Methinks  I  see, 
in  my  mind,  a  noble  and  puissant  nation  rousing 
herself,  like  a  strong  man  after  sleep,  and  shak- 
ing her  invincible  locks :  methinks  I  see  her  as  an 
eagle  mewing  her  mighty  youth,  and  kindling 
her  undazzled  eyes  at  the  full  midday  beam; 
purging  and  unsealing  her  long-abused  sight  at 
the  fountain  itself  of  heavenly  radiance;  while 
the  whole  noise  of  timorous  and  flocking  birds, 
with  those  also  that  love  the  twilight,  flutter 
about,  amazed  at  what  she  means,  and  in  their 
envious  gabble  would  prognosticate  a  year  of 
sects  and  schisms." 

Gentlemen,  what  Milton  only  saw  in  his 
mighty  imagination,  I  see  in  fact;  what  he  ex- 
pected, but  which  never  came  to  pass,  I  see  now 
fulfilling;  methinks  I  see  this  noble  and  puissant 
nation,  not  degenerated  and  drooping  to  a  fatal 
decay,  but  casting  off  the  wrinkled  skin  of  cor- 
ruption to  put  on  again  the  vigor  of  her  youth. 
And  it  is  because  others  as  well  as  myself  see 
this  that  we  have  all  this  uproar ! — France  and  its 
Constitution  are  the  mere  pretenses.  It  is  be- 
cause Britons  begin  to  recollect  the  inheritance 
of  their  own  Constitution,  left  them  by  their  an- 
cestors;— it  is  because  they  are  awakened  to  the 
corruptions  which  have  fallen  upon  its  most  valu- 

193 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

able  parts,  that  forsooth  the  nation  is  in  danger 
of  being  destroyed  by  a  single  pamphlet. 

I  have  marked  the  course  of  this  alarm;  it 
began  with  the  renovation  of  those  exertions  for 
the  public  which  the  alarmists  themselves  had 
originated  and  deserted ;  and  they  became  louder 
and  louder  when  they  saw  them  avowed  and  sup- 
ported by  my  admirable  friend  Mr.  Fox,  the 
most  eminently  honest  and  enlightened  states- 
man that  history  brings  us  acquainted  with:  a 
man  whom  to  name  is  to  honor,  but  whom  in  at- 
tempting adequately  to  describe,  I  must  fly  to 
Mr.  Burke,  my  constant  refuge  when  eloquence 
is  necessary:  a  man  who,  to  relieve  the  sufferings 
of  the  most  distant  nation,  "put  to  the  hazard 
his  ease,  his  security,  his  interest,  his  power,  even 
his  darling  popularity,  for  the  benefit  of  a  people 
whom  he  had  never  seen."  How  much  more 
then  for  the  inhabitants  of  his  native  country! — 
yet  this  is  the  man  who  has  been  censured  and  dis- 
avowed in  the  manner  we  have  lately  seen. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  but  a  few  more  words  to 
trouble  you  with:  I  take  my  leave  of  you  with 
declaring  that  all  this  freedom  which  I  have  been 
endeavoring  to  assert  is  no  more  than  the  ancient 
freedom  which  belongs  to  our  own  inbred  Con- 
stitution. I  have  not  asked  you  to  acquit  Thomas 
194 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Paine  upon  any  new  lights,  or  upon  any  prin- 
ciple but  that  of  the  law,  which  you  are  sworn 
to  administer; — my  great  object  has  been  to  in- 
culcate that  wisdom  and  policy,  which  are  the 
parents  of  the  Government  of  Great  Britain, 
forbid  this  jealous  eye  over  her  subjects;  and 
that,  on  the  contrary,  they  cry  aloud  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  poet,  adverted  to  by  Lord  Chatham 
on  the  memorable  subject  of  America,  unfortu- 
nately without  effect — 

Be  to  their  faults  a  little  blind, 
Be  to  their  virtues  very  kind, 
Let  all  their  thoughts  be  unconfined, 
And  clap  your  padlock  on  the  mind. 

Engage  the  people  by  their  affections — con- 
vince their  reason — and  they  will  be  loyal  from 
the  only  principle  that  can  make  loyalty  sincere, 
vigorous  or  rational — a  conviction  that  it  is 
their  truest  interest,  and  that  their  Government 
is  for  their  good.  Constraint  is  the  natural  par- 
ent of  resistance,  and  a  pregnant  proof  that  rea- 
son is  not  on  the  side  of  those  who  use  it.  You 
must  all  remember  Lucian's  pleasant  story :  Jupi- 
ter and  a  countryman  were  walking  together, 
conversing  with  great  freedom  and  familiarity 
upon  the  subject  of  heaven  and  earth.  The  coun- 
tryman listened  with  attention  and  acquiescence, 

195 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

while  Jupiter  strove  only  to  convince  him;  but 
happening  to  hint  a  doubt,  Jupiter  turned  hastily 
round  and  threatened  him  with  his  thunder.  "Ah, 
ah!"  says  the  countryman,  "now,  Jupiter,  I  know 
that  you  are  wrong ;  you  are  always  wrong  when 
you  appeal  to  your  thunder." 

This  is  the  case  with  me — I  can  reason  with 
the  people  of  England,  but  I  cannot  fight  against 
the  thunder  of  authority. 

Gentlemen,  this  is  my  defense  for  free  opin- 
ions. With  regard  to  myself,  I  am,  and  always 
have  been,  obedient  and  affectionate  to  the  law — 
to  that  rule  of  action,  as  long  as  I  exist,  I  shall 
ever  give  my  voice  and  my  conduct;  but  I  shall 
ever  do  as  I  have  done  to-day,  maintain  the  dig- 
nity of  my  high  profession,  and  perform,  as  I 
understand  them,  all  its  important  duties. 

[Mr.  Attorney-general  arose  immediately  to  reply  to  Mr.  Ers- 
kine,  when  Mr.  Campbell  (the  foreman  of  the  jury)  said:  "My 
Lord,  I  am  authorized  by  the  jury  to  inform  the  Attorney-general 
that  a  reply  is  not  necessary  for  them,  unless  the  Attorney-general 
wishes  to  make  it,  or  Your  Lordship."  Mr.  Attorney-general  sat 
down,  and  the  jury  gave  in  their  verdict — Guilty.] 


196 


ly  to  convince  >ut 

tit  a  doubt,  Jupiter  turned  ha.' 

ned  him  with  his  thunder.    "  Ah, 

Irynian,  "now,  Jupiter,  I  know 

ig;  you  are  always  wrong  when 

>eal  to  your  thunder." 

This  is  the  case  with  ason  with 

I      :;   i  st 

!h under  of  aut 

LORD  ERSKINE 

Photogravure  from   an  Old   Engraving   hi)   George  E. 
Ferine  of  the  Original  Painting 

hat  ru)  ist,  I  shall 

t;  but  I  shall 
r  do  as  mintain  the  dig- 

id  perform,  as  I 
nt  duties. 

reply  to  Mr.   I 
if  the  jury)   said: 

I  the  Attorney-gene 
ess  the  Attorney-general 

jury  gav  diet — Guilty.] 


THOMAS  PAINE:  FATHER  OF 
REPUBLICS 

By  Paul  Desjardins 

1HAVE  been  attempting  to  learn  some  true 
details  concerning  Thomas  Paine,  and  I  will 
explain  my  motive  for  doing  so  as  clearly  as  I 
am  able.  After  satisfying  myself  as  to  the  real 
meaning  of  the  word  "republic,"  I  wished  to 
discover  the  reason  why  I  am  a  republican:  Is 
it  because  of  certain  influences  or  on  account  of 
a  certain  intellectual  necessity?  Then  I  asked 
myself  in  what  sense  and  to  what  degree  are  all 
thinking  men  of  the  present  day  republicans, 
and  at  what  point  do  they  cease  to  agree  and 
begin  to  quarrel  on  the  subject.  Afterwards  I 
formulated  the  modern  idea  of  "republic,"  and 
wrote  it  down  in  the  three  closely  connected  pro- 
positions  which  follow: 

The  greatest  possible  liberty  should  be  desired  for 
the  greatest  possible  number  of  men,  and  no  liberty 
should  be  assured  to  anyone  which  is  not  assured  to  all. 
A  principle  of  justice. 

This  equal  extension  of  every  liberty,  won  for  every- 
body by  the  law,  can  only  be  sheltered  from  usurpation 
when  all  equally  concur  in  making  the  law.  A  lesson  of 
experience. 

197 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  this  power  of  making  the  law  is  only  guaran- 
teed to  all,  even  to  the  weak,  when  the  force  which  exe- 
cutes the  law  is  controlled  by  all.  Rejecting,  then,  the 
government  of  a  single  individual,  we  try  to  found  by 
a  written  contract,  or  Constitution,  mutual  government, 
as  rightly  conceived  by  moderns,  under  the  ancient  name 
of  republic.  An  arrangement  also  suggested  by  experi- 
ence. 

The  first  two  propositions  have  long  been  re- 
garded as  almost  truths  of  common  sense. 
Posted  in  every  French  primary  school  in  the 
very  words  of  the  decree  of  the  Constituent  As- 
sembly of  1792,  they  have  been  inoculated  into 
every  people,  during  the  century  which  has 
closed,  along  with  our  Western  civilization.  The 
third  is  regarded  as  an  opinion  rather  than  an 
absolute  truth,  but  it  is  an  opinion  that  is  grow- 
ing, an  opinion  that  is  embraced  in  a  blind,  yet 
vigorous  kind  of  fashion  by  four  out  of  every 
five  Frenchmen. 

Such,  then,  is  the  idea  whose  origin  I  have 
been  seeking.  Now,  it  is  clear  that  I  cannot  find 
the  origin  of  the  first  proposition  in  the  ancient 
world,  for,  although  it  has  given  us  the  word 
republic,  it  assigned  to  it  a  different  significance. 
The  Greek  and  Roman  cities  were  built  up  by 
means  of  a  scaffolding  of  classes  with  slavery  as 
a  foundation.  The  fine  discipline  to  which  the 
198 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

youth  of  these  cities  was  subjected  owed  its  per- 
fection to  the  refusal  to  see  that  an  isolated  per- 
son had  any  rights  against  the  despotism  of  the 
community.  Even  conscience  was  not  sheltered 
against  public  ordinances,  for  religion  was  also 
the  concern  of  the  state.  So  far  was  the  repub- 
lic from  guaranteeing  the  "rights  of  man"  and  of 
the  citizen,  that  it  exacted  their  sacrifice.  And 
this  was  not  really  an  outrage,  because  the  de- 
sire of  independence  was  either  not  felt  at  all  or 
was  considered  the  mark  of  a  bad  citizen.  Thus 
the  Republicans  of  1792,  when  they  believed 
themselves  to  be  the  successors  of  those  of  Rome 
or  Sparta,  were  altogether  mistaken.  "  I  must 
endeavor,"  I  said  to  myself,  "to  gain  a  more  ac- 
curate conception  of  the  matter." 

Apparently,  the  idea  of  a  state  that  protects 
the  "rights  of  man"  supposes  that  man  has  rights 
actually,  and  then  that  he  has  a  destination,  for 
what  is  the  use  of  a  permit  to  travel  except  it  is 
given  to  a  traveler  who  is  going  somewhere? 
But  this  idea,  that  man  is  traveling  somewhere 
was  introduced,  as  we  all  know,  by  a  great  pro- 
phet, who  said:  "Father,  Thy  kingdom  come!" 
and  filled  hearts  with  the  expectation  of  future 
justice.     We  are  thus  induced  to  believe  that 

199 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

there  is  a  Christian  source  of  liberty,  and  we 
must  push  our  inquiries  in  this  direction. 

As  to  the  other  republican  thesis,  that  of 
equality,  it  also  assumes  the  belief  in  a  God  who 
is  not  nature;  for  in  nature  there  is  no  equality, 
and  we  improve  nature  in  order  to  restore  to  the 
weak  their  place  in  life.  In  presence  of  the  mind 
of  God,  visible  grandeurs  have  no  value,  while 
invisible  ones  exist,  perhaps,  where  their  exist- 
ence is  least  suspected ;  and  so  from  fear  of  mak- 
ing a  wrong  estimate  of  the  value  of  some  par- 
ticular man,  we  are  driven  to  the  conclusion  that 
one  man  is  as  good  as  another,  and  that  equality 
is  justice.  Thus  we  are  obliged  to  have  recourse 
to  a  Christian  source  again. 

In  fact,  no  book  takes  so  little  notice  of  social 
hierarchies  as  the  Gospels  do.  At  no  period  has 
a  sincerer  effort  been  made  at  equality  than  dur- 
ing the  early  times  of  Christianity;  and,  still 
later,  wherever  the  spirit  of  Christ  breathes  free- 
ly, emancipated  from  Roman  imperialism,  little 
fraternities  have  been  formed,  real  republics 
in  which  election  and  universal  suffrage  were  the 
only  source  of  power. 

After  the  Reformation  of  the  Seventeenth 
Century,  these  republican  organizations  were 
multiplied  and  secularized.  Puritans  and  Quak- 
200 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

ers,  especially,  establish  mutual  government, 
draw  up  constitutions,  compacts,  covenants  or 
agreements,  supported  by  a  declaration  of  the 
"rights  of  man,"  on  whatever  coasts  they  select 
for  their  settlements:  in  Holland,  in  Cromwell's 
England  for  a  moment,  on  the  virgin  shores  of 
America  permanently.  And  America  is  prob- 
ably the  teacher — a  teacher  but  half  understood 
— of  modern  France,  who,  in  her  turn,  is  teach- 
ing Europe. 

Such  was  the  bird's-eye  view  which  I  took  of 
the  idea  now  covered  by  the  word  republic.  To 
verify  this  hypothesis,  it  became  necessary  to  find 
out  who  were  the  men  that,  either  as  discoverers 
or  imitators,  had  transplanted  the  idea  from 
England  to  America,  from  America  to  France, 
and  from  the  order  of  religious  doctrines  to  the 
order  of  secular  facts. 

Now,  Thomas  Paine  suddenly  struck  across 
the  path  of  my  investigation  as  the  mediator  I 
had  been  seeking;  not,  indeed,  the  only  one,  but 
the  chief.  He  was  born  an  Englishman  and  be- 
longed to  the  sect  of  Quakers;  he  emigrated  to 
America,  and  when  the  colonies  were  still  hesi- 
tating as  to  their  action  in  their  quarrel  with  the 
mother  country,  he  spoke  out  plainly  for  auton- 
omy, and  then  for  a  republic. 

i-M  201 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Finally,  he  came  to  France,  and  there,  too, 
when,  during  the  Legislative  Assembly,  men 
were  disconcerted  in  presence  of  an  incredible 
crisis,  he  spoke  out  plainly  for  a  republic;  he 
suggested  doubtless  to  his  friend  Condorcet  the 
plan  of  the  first  republican  Constitution;  he  sat 
himself,  although  a  foreigner,  in  the  National 
Convention  and  on  the  Constitutional  Commit- 
tee, and  he  did  not  abandon  the  French  Revolu- 
tion until  it  had  degenerated  into  the  Terror, 
demagogism  and,  at  last,  the  Empire.  His  ca- 
reer makes  me  think  of  those  insects  that  fecun- 
date flowers  by  transporting  the  pollen  through 
space.  If  we  had  a  really  good  biography  of 
him  it  would,  I  imagine,  contain  a  complete  epi- 
tomized genealogy  of  the  modern  idea  of  a 
republic. 

The  name  of  "Payne"  is  frequently  men- 
tioned by  the  historians  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, and  always  in  such  relations  as  prove  that  in 
the  opinion  of  his  contemporaries  it  was  a  very 
great  name  indeed.  He  figures  among  the  eigh- 
teen illustrious  foreign  philosophers  upon  whom 
the  Legislative  Assembly  conferred  on  August 
6,  1792,  the  title  of  French  citizen,  for  "having 
prepared  the  enfranchisement  of  peoples";  Wil- 
berforce,  Washington  and  Schiller  are  on  the 
202 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

same  list.  He  is  elected  to  the  Convention  by 
four  Departments,  although  neither  a  French- 
man nor  a  candidate,  and  absent. 

Just  imagine  the  popularity  a  foreign  author 
would  need  to  have  to-day  to  win  in  this  fashion 
the  senatorial  electors  of  a  province!  Would 
even  Tolstoi  succeed  in  doing  so?  The  landing 
of  Paine  at  Calais  might  be  compared  to  that  of 
President  Kriiger  some  time  ago  at  Marseilles, 
with  its  salvos  of  artillery,  its  banquets,  flags 
and  orations. 

He  was  manifestly  regarded  as  the  real  liber- 
ator of  America.  Danton  said  to  him :  "  What 
you  have  done  for  the  happiness  and  liberty  of 
your  country,  I  have  in  vain  tried  to  do  for  mine." 
Brissot  declared  that  the  despots  of  Europe 
feared  Paine  more  than  an  army.  Later  on,  M. 
J.  Chenier  says:  "He  is  endeared  to  all  the 
friends  of  humanity";  Bonaparte,  on  his  return 
from  Italy,  believes  it  his  duty  to  visit  him  in  his 
room,  where  he  tells  him  that  his  Droits  de 
Vhomme  has  been  the  companion  of  his  pillow, 
and  that  the  author  of  such  a  work  deserves  a 
statue  of  gold. 

And  now,  in  the  midst  of  all  this,  what  is  the 
action  really  exercised  by  this  living  idol?  I  no 
longer  find  any  traces  of  it.    What  has  he  ac- 

203 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

complished  in  the  legislative  work  of  the  Revolu- 
tion? We  do  not  know.  He  is  always  to  be 
found  among  the  small  group  of  the  doctrinaire 
republicans  of  1792,  Condorcet,  Brissot,  Gre- 
goire;  he  is  their  friend;  we  should,  however,  like 
to  know  if  he  is  their  inspirer.  But  what  remains 
on  the  morrow  of  a  conversation,  a  phrase,  a 
word,  which,  perhaps  on  the  evening  before  has 
solved  a  difficulty  and  lit  up  the  entire  path?  Is 
anyone  ever  truly  acquainted  with  the  first  au- 
thor of  a  thought? 

As  to  the  famous  books  of  Paine,  "Common 
Sense,"  the  "Crisis,"  the  "Rights  of  Man," 
"The  Age  of  Reason,"  at  first  they  have  a  sale 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies,  and  are 
translated  into  all  languages.  The  first  of  these 
books  is  bound  with  the  Contrat  social  of  Rous- 
seau in  the  same  French  edition,  like  a  Bible  in 
two  parts.  Furthermore,  in  1832,  the  Societes 
des  droits  de  Vhomme  et  du  citoyen  draw  from  it 
a  Catechisme  republicain  for  the  political  edu- 
cation of  young  Frenchmen.  Then,  according 
as  the  republican  thesis  begins  to  make  its  way, 
these  republican  writings  lose  their  luster  and 
their  audacity.  Nobody  cares  to  look  at  them, 
because  everyone  knows  what  they  are.  Not 
being  poems,  but  agents  of  revolution,  their  very 
204 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

success  puts  them  out  of  fashion,  for  they  are  no 
longer  useful.  Which  of  us  can  say  he  has  read 
them  to-day? 

In  countries  where  the  English  language  is 
spoken,  these  writings,  with  their  robust  elo- 
quence, should,  one  would  imagine,  have  re- 
mained popular.  But  in  these  countries  Tom 
Paine  has  lost  his  reputation;  and  this  is  very 
natural;  he  has  offended  every  prejudice  to 
which  the  people  of  the  Bible  and  of  Custom 
cling  with  a  sort  of  fierce  timidity.  Tom  Paine 
has  proved  faithless  to  the  mother  country,  then 
to  the  religion  of  his  ancestors ;  he  sneers  at  Eng- 
lish traditions,  denies  the  divinity  of  Christ — 
so  Great  Britain  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
him ;  he  is  rude  to  Washington — so  America  will 
have  nothing  to  do  with  him;  he  votes  against 
the  death  of  Louis  XVI,  so  the  French  revolu- 
tionists will  have  nothing  to  do  with  him. 

Finally,  he  does  not  belong  to  any  compact 
group.  He  is  an  outsider,  let  him  take  the  con- 
sequences. For  all  these  reasons,  he  is  bound  to 
be,  then,  a  wicked  man,  a  drunkard,  an  atheist,  a 
sort  of  antichrist.  Even  the  Quakers  repudiate 
him.  During  his  lifetime  tracts  are  published 
prophesying  that  he  will  be  soon  carried  off  by 
his  boon  companion  Satan.     While  waiting  for 

205 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

this  catastrophe,  the  members  of  certain  pious 
clubs  burn  him  in  effigy ;  he  is  caricatured,  and  has 
the  ears  of  an  ass  on  plates  and  beer-mugs ;  hon- 
est citizens  have  the  initials  T.  P.  stamped  on  the 
soles  of  their  boots  so  that  they  can  always  tram- 
ple on  this  heretic  and  renegade  to  his  county. 
On  the  news  of  his  death,  patriots  sing  in  the 
taverns : 

The  Fox  has  lost  his  tail, 

The  Ass  has  stopped  his  braying, 

The  Devil  has  carried  off  Tom  Paine — 

John  Bull  forever! 

Never  has  a  friend  of  the  people  suffered  so 
much  from  the  people's  hatred.  Consequently, 
his  books  and  his  fame  have  been  flung  into  the 
same  common  ditch,  as  usually  happens  to  those 
whom  society  repudiates.  This  is  doubtless  the 
reason  why,  in  my  conversations  with  English- 
men and  Americans,  I  have  never  been  able  to 
bring  the  singular  personage  whose  attraction  I 
felt  out  of  the  darkness  that  envelops  him. 

It  is  only  by  a  very  careful  examination  of 
his  biographies,  and  especially  of  his  diary,  that 
I  have  finally  succeeded  in  gaining  some  concep- 
tion of  the  circumstances  under  the  influence  of 
which  his  idea  of  a  republic  took  form  and  sub- 
stance. And,  in  the  second  place,  a  similar  ex- 
206 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

amination  of  the  content  of  this  idea  will  show 
us  that  it  had  been  until  then  unheard  of,  par- 
ticularly in  France,  and  that  it  still  holds  within 
itself,  even  at  the  present  hour,  a  certain  signifi- 
cance that  has  been,  so  far,  unperceived. 

The  work  which  M.  Aulard  has  published  on 
the  Histoire  politique  de  la  Revolution  francaise 
throws  considerable  light  upon  this  second  point. 
We  can  easily  deduce  from  this  book  that  the 
French  people,  even  in  1791,  disliked  the  very 
notion  of  a  republic,  and  that  the  latter  owed  its 
realization  to  the  abrupt  shock  of  events,  every 
other  issue  being  barred,  and  not  to  the  precon- 
ceived design  of  any  of  the  public  men  of  the 
period,  save  and  except  of  the  man  whom  I  re- 
gard as  its  true  inventor,  the  phlegmatic  and 
determined  man  who  inferred  the  necessity  of  the 
republic  from  principles  independent  of  the  hour 
and  of  casualty. 

From  his  earliest  years  Paine  had  experi- 
enced all  the  miseries  that  crush  the  life  out  of 
the  humble,  of  those  who  are  weighed  down  by 
the  enormous  framework  of  society.  As  he  pos- 
sessed no  other  title  but  that  of  man  upon  which 
to  base  his  protest  against  being  trampled  under- 
foot, his  was  a  condition  very  favorable  to  the 
discovery  that  man  in  society  has,  simply  as  man, 

207 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

certain  rights.  For  that  matter,  there  was  not 
the  slightest  bitterness  in  his  knowledge  of  the 
situation.  He  never  had  a  thought  of  personal 
success.  Gracious  Heaven!  success  in  what?  He 
took  very  little  interest  in  himself.  His  careless- 
ness in  this  respect  was  perfect.  Provided  he 
had  leisure  to  read,  to  meet  a  few  friends  at  night 
at  a  debating  club  where  he  could  have  the  pleas- 
ure of  displaying  his  eloquence  and  the  force  of 
his  logic,  he  was  satisfied  with  his  fate.  Marvel- 
ously  endowed  as  a  dialectitian,  he  had  no 
passions  except  intellectual  ones,  and  all  his  train- 
ing was  received  in  lecture-rooms  and  halls  of 
discussion. 

It  is  by  this  intellectual  training  that,  when 
he  sails  for  America,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight, 
all  his  thoughts  have  been  completely  developed 
and  have  received  their  final  form.  For  their 
expression  he  is  gifted  with  an  eloquence,  not  as 
yet  displayed  in  public,  but  already  admired  by 
his  friends.  Moreover,  although  indigent  and 
unknown,  he  is  not  disturbed  by  the  loss  of  the 
years  which  are  flying  or  by  his  failure  to  open 
a  path  to  the  modest  employments  which,  one 
after  another,  have  been  shut  against  him.  He 
is  tranquil.  He  quits  England,  where  he  can 
no  longer  find  means  of  subsistence,  and  he 
208 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

leaves,  not  as  an  apostle  of  the  enfranchisement 
of  a  people,  but  simply  as  a  workman  who  hopes 
to  earn  four  or  five  guineas  a  month. 

Thomas  Paine,  then,  is  already  a  decided  re- 
publican. All  that  future  experience  in  political 
affairs  can  teach  him  is  the  difficulties  to  be  over- 
come in  establishing  a  republic,  not  the  duty  and 
necessity  of  establishing  it. 

And  every  idea  which  will  be  the  basis  of  his 
actions  has  its  origin  in  three  facts :  he  is  an  Eng- 
lishman, he  is  one  of  the  common  people,  he  is  a 
Quaker,  and  all  three  combine  to  give  him  the 
republican  temperament.  Now,  this  republican 
temperament  may  also  be  recognized  among  sev- 
eral of  the  countrymen  and  contemporaries  of 
Paine.  In  good  truth,  it  is  among  the  unbending 
and  sturdy  English  spirits  of  the  Seventeenth 
and  Eighteenth  Centuries  that  we  encounter  the 
pioneers  of  that  right  of  resistance  to  oppression 
which  is  affirmed  so  decidedly  in  our  French 
Declaration  of  Rights. 

Paine  brought  to  America  this  obstinate  Bri- 
tannic conviction  of  the  intangibility  of  his  rights, 
and  he  transported  it  to  France.  It  is  shown  in 
his  letter  to  the  Committee  of  General  Safety, 
written  on  September  19,  1794:  "Citizen  repre- 

209 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

sentatives,  I  demand  an  inquiry.  Justice  is  due 
to  every  man.    I  demand  only  justice." 

The  same  tranquil  spirit  of  resistance  also 
marks  his  opposition  in  1802  to  the  Government 
of  the  First  Consul:  "  I  cannot  live  with  ease  in 
the  States  of  Bonaparte ;  though  he  governed  like 
an  angel,  the  memory  would  always  haunt  me 
that  he  has  perjured  himself";  and,  in  rendering 
judgment,  he  never  raises  his  voice;  but  he  makes 
his  meaning  clear. 

We  have  here,  then,  an  authentic  picture  of 
a  republican  temperament  furnished  by  old  Eng- 
land to  the  new  France,  at  a  time  when  the  lat- 
ter was  searching  in  the  "Lives"  of  Plutarch  and 
elsewhere  for  the  type  of  man  that  would  har- 
monize with  free  institutions.  But  the  way  had 
also  been  opened  in  another  manner  by  royal 
old  England  for  the  modern  republic;  for,  ever 
since  the  beginning  of  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
the  mode  of  government  had  been  discussed 
there,  at  first  by  the  parliamentary  opposition, 
then,  among  the  people,  by  everyone. 

The  forums  of  debate  were  not,  as  in  France, 
salons  in  which  the  fatuous  self-conceit  engen- 
dered by  the  presence  of  women  found  full  satis- 
faction in  gibes  and  sarcasms  directed  at  an  op- 
ponent, and  in  dogmatic  assertion;  but  taverns, 
210 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

clubs,  A  Society  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Rights,  A  Society  of  Constitutional 
Studies ,  The  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  Revo- 
lution, in  which  each  disputant  exhausted  the 
logical  bearings  of  every  question.  Let  us  add 
that  the  habit  of  theological  controversies  be- 
tween the  various  sects,  to  which  England  and 
Scotland  had  been  accustomed  for  two  centuries, 
was  also  very  efficacious. 

Brought  into  collision  with  such  influences, 
mere  idle  dogmatism  is  no  longer  tenable;  the 
disputant  must  have  a  fixed  notion  in  his  own 
mind  of  what  he  believes,  must  define  it  clearly, 
and  separate  it  from  what  he  only  half  believes. 
This  is  why  nearly  all  the  English  radicals  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century  are  emancipated  clergy- 
men, like  the  Rev.  John  Home  Tooke,  Dr. 
Richard  Price  and  Dr.  Joseph  Priestley.  They 
are  exactly  contemporaries  of  Thomas  Paine,  his 
collaborators,  his  friends.  The  little  group  which 
they  form  unite  and  solder  together  the  Eng- 
lish Revolution  of  1688  to  the  French  Revolu- 
tion of  1789. 

These  clubs  have  a  checkered  history.  They 
were  often  the  antechamber  of  the  royal  prisons. 
But  in  these  isolated  clubs,  always  menaced  with 
annihilation,  certain  logicians,  sprung  from  the 

211 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

people,  distilled  as  it  were  into  an  alembic  the 
people's  sufferings  and  complaints,  and  after- 
wards converted  them  into  clear  ideas.  The  pro- 
gramme of  fraternal  government  was  thus  elab- 
orated in  darkness,  article  after  article.  Thus, 
the  republican  spirit,  which  is  the  spirit  of  free 
research,  the  spirit  of  criticism,  applied  to  things 
political,  was  sharpened  in  the  same  country  in 
which  the  republican  temperament  was  steeled. 

It  is  not,  in  fact,  sufficient  to  set  up  a  gov- 
ernment of  liberty,  even  though  wide  enough  and 
strong  enough  to  resist  the  shocks  of  brute  force ; 
a  cool  head,  which  is  not  affected  by  demonstra- 
tions and  cannot  be  magnetized  by  words,  is  also 
needed.  Now  a  discipline  of  that  kind  is  ac- 
quired only  by  familiarity  with  scientific  methods 
or  by  the  habit  of  debate  in  a  small  club,  con- 
fined to  its  members.  As  Paine  was  an  Eng- 
lishman of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  he  had  the 
benefit  of  the  latter. 

And  so,  no  sooner  has  this  petty  custom- 
house clerk,  this  proletarian,  as  we  may  almost 
call  him,  landed  on  American  soil  than  he  is  at 
once  able  to  edit  magazines,  hold  his  own  in  the 
most  complex  controversies  with  the  ablest  states- 
men, jurists  and  theologians.  From  a  confused 
apperception  he  is  able  to  draw  the  enlightening 
212 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

formula,  the  one  fit  word; — and  of  the  impor- 
tant part  that  the  nomenclator  plays  in  a  propa- 
ganda we  have  numerous  examples:  the  nomen- 
clator is  the  person  who  supplies  ideas  with 
wings. 

Paine  was  also  an  adept  at  discussion,  and,  at 
first,  discussion  with  himself;  he  knew  how  to 
extract  ideas  from  the  maze  of  impulsive  pre- 
judices. Shaded  in  a  garden  by  some  linden 
tree,  or  in  the  evening  around  the  tea-cups,  it  is 
his  pleasure  to  hold  a  debate,  not  on  the  chances 
of  this  party  or  that  succeeding,  which  is,  in  his 
opinion  only  a  "jockeyship,"  but  on  the  need  of 
an  entire  upheaval,  if  total  justice  is  to  be  real- 
ized. 

Consequently,  when,  later  on,  he  will  stand 
in  presence  of  the  Conventionals,  their  discourses 
and  their  plans  will  strike  him  as  the  vague  am- 
plifications of  young  collegians,  gleaned  by  them 
from  their  desultory  readings.  The  only  per- 
sons who  look  to  him  like  adult  statesmen  are 
Condorcet  and  Brissot,  who  have  traveled,  who 
have  seen  and  reflected.  The  others  make  the 
same  use  of  words  that  they  might  make  of  a 
gesture  or  a  cry,  to  relieve  their  nerves,  not  to 
objectivize  their  thought.  They  are  children. 
But,  then,  he  has  the  advantage  over  the  French 

213 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  two  centuries  of  political  seU-cross-examina- 
tion  and  self-possession. 

This  statement,  however,  requires  some  cor- 
rection. Although  an  Englishman  by  tempera- 
ment and  education,  he  does  not  belong  to  the 
England  of  the  classes,  the  England  that  is 
harsh  to  the  poor.  He  is  poor  himself,  he  is  one 
of  the  common  people;  and  this  fact,  taken  in 
connection  with  his  miserable  years  of  appren- 
ticeship, is  not,  perhaps,  without  consequence  for 
the  future  of  the  republic. 

In  the  first  place,  he  is  thereby  liberated  from 
that  special  English  characteristic  which  would 
have  limited  his  action  to  his  own  country;  for 
the  man  who  has  not  always  earned  enough  to 
insure  him  his  dinner  has,  by  practical  experi- 
ment, learned  the  grievous  condition  of  human 
life  in  every  country.  Diversity  and  non-com- 
prehension are  the  concomitants  of  ease  and  com- 
fort. Habituated  to  a  frugal  table,  Paine  will 
never  change  his  customary  fare.  His  food  will 
always  be  of  the  simplest  and  plainest.  Poverty 
is  so  much  his  normal  condition  that  for  him  it 
is  no  longer  poverty. 

This  ex-staymaker,  who  has  witnessed  the  sale 
of  his  shabby  furniture  on  the  street  before  his 
door,  will  always  remain  on  both  continents  the 
214 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

friend  of  the  poor,  because  he  knows  what  their 
life  is,  and  on  account  of  this  impoverished  con- 
dition (which  by  the  way  is  the  natural  condition 
of  man),  he  is  as  exempt  from  class  prejudices 
as  from  national  prejudices.  A  few  aristo- 
crats in  London  had,  indeed,  championed  the 
cause  of  equality ;  but  with  them  this  was  an  idea, 
a  caprice;  it  becomes  an  appetite  in  those  to 
whom  inequality  signifies  the  extreme  difficulty 
of  mere  existence;  and  it  is  appetite  alone  that 
invigorates  the  will  and  loads  the  musket. 

It  is  well  to  remark,  in  fact,  that  nearly  all 
the  English  radical  associates  of  Paine  were 
born  far  below  the  middle  class;  they  are  work- 
men, petty  shopkeepers,  petty  country  clergy- 
men; they  have  not,  therefore,  an  atom  of  class 
pride  about  them.  They  are  not  at  all  likely  to 
be  satisfied  with  a  middle-class  government ;  they 
make  very  little  difference  between  the  Tories 
who  believe  in  the  divine  right  of  kings,  and  the 
Whigs  who  believe  in  the  divine  right  of  the  gen- 
try; as  far  as  they  are  concerned,  they  will  be 
satisfied  only  with  complete  political  equality 
for  the  workmen.    This  is  no  small  innovation. 

Recollect  that  the  very  opposite  thesis  has 
been  supported  by  the  philosophers  who  acted  as 
guides   to   the   French   revolutionists:    Turgot, 

215 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Rousseau,  Mably,  Condorcet.  Rendered  dis- 
trustful by  the  spectacle  of  the  destructive  re- 
sults of  demagogism  in  ancient  times,  they  ex- 
clude from  the  right  of  suffrage  "the  stupid  and 
bestial  populace"  (Rousseau),  "those  dregs  of 
humanity  destined  to  serve  only  as  ballast  to  the 
vessel  of  society"  (Mably).  Consequently,  the 
democracy  will  be  limited  to  property-holders 
alone,  who  have  a  stake  in  the  country,  and  who, 
being  fixed  to  the  soil,  participate  in  the  stability 
of  the  nation. 

This  opinion  will  take  the  form  of  law  in 
July,  1789,  with  the  distinction  formulated  by 
Sieves  between  active  and  passive  citizens.  Thus 
the  Revolution  will  try  to  install  the  middle 
class  in  power.  Certainly,  the  arguments  al- 
leged in  favor  of  this  are  not  destitute  of  wisdom ; 
nevertheless,  they  are  of  too  different  a  char- 
acter and  sprung  too  suddenly  not  to  have  been 
suggested  by  another  motive,  at  once  simple, 
involuntary  and  secret:  the  semi-economic,  semi- 
intellectual  prejudices  of  parvenus  against  the 
class  of  the  poor  and  ignorant.  Thus  the  modern 
republic  was  stopped  on  its  road. 

At  that  moment,  Paine  and  his  friends  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Channel,  who  had  at  first  ac- 
claimed, in  the  destruction  of  the  Bastile  and  the 
216 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  the  success  of 
their  long  struggle,  suddenly  come  to  a  halt ;  they 
had  believed  in  a  radical  advance;  this  is  but  a 
Whig  movement.  They  perceive  that  the  French 
Revolution  is  not  made  by  the  entire  people,  that 
it  is  being  developed  outside  the  humbler  classes, 
which  it  has  forgotten.  This  conclusion  is  still 
more  strongly  enforced  in  1792  by  the  fact  that 
among  the  attorneys,  notaries,  priests  and  doc- 
tors who  are  his  colleagues  in  the  Convention, 
there  is  scarcely  a  single  artisan  except  himself. 

He  will,  then,  be  a  supporter  of  equality,  not 
less  firm  than  Robespierre,  but  less  ostentatious. 
And  the  reason  of  this  is  that,  while  Robespierre 
has  discovered  the  dignity  of  labor  in  the  home 
of  the  Duplays,  with  whom  he  is  lodging,  Tom 
Paine  remembers  that  he  has  been  a  workman 
himself.  The  man  who  has  made  stays,  rolled  to- 
bacco and  forged  bars  of  iron  will  not  experience 
in  his  contact  with  the  mobs  of  the  faubourgs  that 
disgust  and  terror  at  the  aspect  of  their  black- 
ened hands,  their  animal  faces,  which  drawing- 
room  democrats,  like  Buzot,  Madame  Roland 
and  the  other  Girondins  cannot  surmount,  and 
which  will  cost  them  so  dear,  and  the  republic 
also. 

Thomas  Paine,  then,  will  know  how  to  speak 
i-n  217 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

to  the  people  like  one  who  is  of  the  people.  He 
will  speak  with  such  limpid  clearness  that  the 
first-comer  understands  all  he  says,  for  what  he 
says  reflects  the  experience  of  the  listener.  It 
is  by  this  mark  that  I  recognize  the  man  of  the 
people:  he  is  a  man  intelligible  to  all  the  people; 
he  is  not  a  specialist  in  any  direction,  and  cer- 
tainly not  in  books,  journals  or  other  writings, 
which  tend  to  accustom  the  mind  to  act  on  signs 
any  emolument  from  it. 

Now  the  man  we  are  discussing  exactly  fits 
this  description.  In  what  profession  shall  we 
class  him?  If  the  nation  were  divided  into  trades 
and  professions,  he  might  be  regarded  as  a  type 
of  the  manual  laborer  or  of  the  lower  class  of 
employees;  but  he  would  also  be  a  type  of  the 
engineers,  for,  after  applying  his  sound  common 
sense  to  the  study  of  the  arched  threads  by  means 
of  which  spiders  hang  their  webs,  he  drew  there- 
from the  plans  of  the  first  metallic  bridge  con- 
structed in  Europe;  and  of  the  hygienists  also, 
for,  having  applied  this  same  sound  common 
sense  to  the  etiology  of  yellow  fever,  he  proved 
that  it  is  propagated  in  harbors  by  the  putrefac- 
tion of  inorganic  matter;  and  of  astronomy  as 
well,  for,  always  exercising  the  same  sound  com- 
mon sense  on  everything  he  saw,  he  inferred, 
218 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

twenty  years  before  Herschel,  that  the  fixed 
stars  are  suns;  finally,  he  might  be  taken  as  a 
type  of  the  statesman  and  author;  for  his  books 
stir  up  nations,  although  he  has  never  made  a 
profession  of  literature  or  thought  of  drawing 
any  emolument  from  it. 

His  mind  is  free,  because  it  is  altogether  con- 
crete. When  we  read  his  pamphlets,  we  are 
struck  by  the  fact  that  his  eloquence  is  com- 
pounded of  things  rather  than  of  words.  His 
imagination  adheres  strictly  to  reality,  it  does  not 
devote  itself  to  expression  for  the  purpose  of  or- 
nament, but  to  the  impression  in  order  to  render 
it  fixed  and  permanent  as  well  as  vivid  and 
naked. 

He  deduces  the  rights  of  man  from  in- 
cidents in  his  own  biography:  he  sees  again  the 
Duke  of  Grafton  passing  in  his  carriage  through 
the  lines  of  the  bent  backs  of  the  Thetford  mag- 
istrates, the  judges,  in  their  long  wigs  at  the 
Lenten  assizes,  hanging  men  and  women  for 
breaches  of  the  game  laws,  and  the  grimaces  on 
the  pallid  faces  of  the  Dissenters,  framed  by  the 
pillory  at  the  corner  of  the  market-place.  His 
conclusion  that  the  republic  is  "a  government  of 
justice"  is  not  dictated  to  him  by  Plutarch's 
"Life  of  Lycurgus,"  but  by  what  he  has  dis- 

219 


WRITINGS  OF  THf)MAS  PAINE 

covered  during  his  walks  in  the  streets  or  in  the 
country.  Upon  this  groundwork  of  concrete  and 
common  experience  he  reasons,  asserting  that  the 
common  sense  is  the  only  authority,  and  that  a 
blacksmith's  apprentice  is  as  likely  to  possess  this 
common  sense  as  a  doctor  of  theology. 

His  method  of  reasoning  is  also  common; 
there  is  no  preliminary  imitation,  no  technical 
jargon — "You  have  not  read  Plutarch?  Nor 
Montesquieu?  Nor  Rousseau? — that  is  a  pity; 
but  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  my  demonstration. 
I  do  not  suppose  that  you  are  in  possession  of 
any  fundamental  principle  except  common 
sense." 

"Common  Sense"  is  precisely  the  title  of 
Paine's  first  pamphlet,  which  is  the  first 
defense  of  the  modern  republic.  It  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  the  author  should  express 
himself  in  natural  and  direct  language;  for  in  it 
he  had  to  give  public  expression  to  the  thought 
of  everyone,  and  to  do  so  with  such  simple  natur- 
alness that  it  appeals  to  the  humblest,  who  think 
it  is  what  they  have  always  been  thinking  them- 
selves. Then,  as  evidence  is  piled  on  evidence, 
he  manifests  a  sort  of  exultant  gaiety.  The 
logic  is  blended  with  joviality;  for  common  sense 
has  its  source  in  the  natural  man,  and  so  we  find, 
220 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

here  and  there,  certain  hearty,  downright  words, 
that  will  force  the  honest  mechanic  who  reads 
them  to  break  into  a  triumphant  laugh  between 
two  whiffs  of  his  pipe.  There  is  nothing  in  his 
discourses  that  resembles  in  the  slightest  degree 
the  rhetorical  abstractions  of  our  Revolutionary 
orators  or  their  melodramatic  emphasis. 

Thus  in  Thomas  Paine,  although  he  is  a 
worker  at  everything,  there  is  no  specialization; 
he  does  not  belong  to  this  or  that  trade,  or  to  this 
or  that  class,  certainly  he  is  not  a  bourgeois; 
neither  is  he  an  anti-bourgeois.  The  very  real 
life  he  has  led  has  made  of  him  a  man  of  the  com- 
mons, in  the  fullest  and  noblest  sense.  But  it  is 
a  religious  doctrine  that  authorizes  and  conse- 
crates this  sentiment  of  equality,  which  in  him  has 
been  the  result  of  experience — in  fact,  a  law  of 
God.  This  doctrine  is  that  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
of  the  few  who  are  faithful  to  Him.  So  when  a 
modern  lays  down  the  principle  that  equality 
among  men  must  be  absolute,  is  essentially  abso- 
lute, you  can  boldly  conjecture  that  his  starting- 
point  is  the  Gospel,  whether  he  knows  it  or  not. 

You  may  see  this  from  the  example  of  those 
English  radicals  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  who 
base  the  claims  of  the  workingman  on  the  Our 
Father.      And    among    the    French    democrats 

221 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

who,  in  1789,  1790  and  1791,  oppose  the  preten- 
sions of  the  middle  class  to  exclusive  privilege, 
we  find  that  they  are  chiefly  priests,  educated  in 
Gospel  meditation :  the  Abbe  Gregoire,  who  says : 
"It  is  time  to  honor  the  indigent";  the  Abbe  de 
Cournand,  professor  in  the  College  de  France, 
who  writes  that  the  poor:  "are  also  our  brothers, 
having  all  the  same  rights  to  the  common  herit- 
age"; the  Abbe  Claude  Fauchet,  who  declares: 
"  All  rights  are  common  property  in  a  well 
ordered  society." 

Having  now  reached  down  to  the  deep  re- 
ligious roots  of  the  republic,  let  us  try  to  show 
how  far  religious  beliefs  affected  the  principles 
of  Thomas  Paine: 

He  was  born  a  Quaker  Christian,  and  he  re- 
tained a  certain  Quaker  bias  even  after  he  had 
ceased  to  be  a  Christian,  which  occurred  at  a  very 
early  age.  He  was  hardly  eight  years  old  when 
his  conscience  revolted  against  the  official  theol- 
ogy; he  refused  to  believe  that  a  God  and  a 
Father  required  the  bloody  sacrifice  of  His  only 
Son  in  order  to  appease  His  hatred  toward  hu- 
manity. His  first  religious  impressions  persisted 
long  after  he  had  publicly  denied  them,  and  for 
this  reason  especially:  the  Quakers  depend  on 
internal  illumination  rather  than  on  any  dogma 
222 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

or  sacrament,  and  this  was  the  lantern  by  whose 
light  Paine  had  discovered  the  interior  world; 
he  never  at  any  period  entirely  departed  from  his 
first  point  of  view.  The  doctrine  of  his  duty  to 
fraternity  had  always  been  his  religion;  it  was 
his  philosophy. 

Such  lessons  assuredly  had  their  effect  on 
Thomas  Paine.  Fortified  from  childhood 
against  the  glamor  which  begins  in  childhood 
for  grown  men,  he  weighed  kings  and  nobles  by 
their  weight  as  men  and  no  more;  George  III, 
his  own  prince,  is,  in  his  judgment,  simply  a 
poor  madman.  Later  on,  when  our  Frenchmen 
experience  the  same  thrill  before  Louis  XVI, 
anointed  with  the  holy  chrism,  that  they  might 
before  the  Holy  Sacrament,  and  afterwards, 
when  by  a  natural  reaction,  they  throw  them- 
selves on  him  with  the  fury  of  a  profaner  of  the 
sacred  Host,  the  ex-Quaker  deliberates  as  com- 
posedly as  if  the  fate  of  a  trapped  mouse  was 
only  at  stake.  The  personage  who  makes  a 
whole  people  tremble,  now  with  veneration,  now 
with  fury,  is  for  him  a  weak-minded,  but  not  an 
ill-minded  creature.  He  measures  dukes,  peers 
and  all  persons  of  rank  with  the  same  tranquillity. 
In  short,  there  is  not  a  fiction,  not  a  challenge 
to  good  sense,  not  an  obstacle  to  republics,  that 

223 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

has  not  been  effaced  from  his  mind  by  his  Quaker 
phlegm.  Even  the  glory  and  the  great  name  of 
Washington  do  not  impose  upon  him.  Believing 
that  the  conduct  of  the  hero  has  been  marked  in 
his  own  case  by  duplicity,  he  plainly  tells  him 
so.  Thus  the  Quakers,  respectful  to  God  alone, 
were  the  first  to  break  "those  cords,"  as  Pascal 
calls  them,  "which  attach  respect  to  such  and 
such  a  person,  and  which  are  simply  cords  of  the 
imagination." 

Another  inequality  is  that  which  our  sym- 
pathy places  between  our  own  countrymen  and 
the  people  of  other  lands.  There  again  the 
imagination  plays  a  part.  The  Quakers  are  too 
unimaginative  to  be  "nationalists";  they  find  in 
every  country  the  same  humanity  of  flesh  and 
spirit  of  which  they  feel  they  are  members. 
Paine,  then,  passes  from  England  to  America, 
then  to  France,  then  back  again  to  America 
without  the  slightest  quiver  of  emotional  leave- 
taking  on  his  departure  from  one  land  for 
another.  He  is  in  exile  nowhere,  for  "my  coun- 
try is  the  world,"  he  says,  after  the  ancient  stoic. 
This  "internationalism"  of  Paine,  as  was  after- 
wards that  of  Lamartine,  is  offensive  to  the  pas- 
sionate plebeians,  who  elevate  impulses  to  the 
rank  of  virtues.  Thus,  Marat,  pure  nationalist, 
224 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

as  well  as  perfect  demagogue  (he  was  born  at 
Neufchatel,  but  that  does  not  disturb  him)  says 
to  a  friend  of  Paine:  "The  French  are  mad  to 
allow  foreigners  to  live  among  them.  They 
should  cut  off  their  ears,  let  them  bleed  for  a  few 
days,  then  cut  off  their  heads."  Thus  the  hatred 
of  Marat  for  Paine  is  a  natural  thing,  for  they 
are  two  mental  structures  one  of  which  implies 
the  negation  of  the  other.  Still,  it  is  in  France 
that  Paine  hopes  to  find  the  clearest  comprehen- 
sion of  his  humanitarian  doctrine.  France  is  a 
country  of  common  sense  even  more  than  of 
imagination;  for  two  centuries  her  philosophers 
have  had  an  immense  audience,  and  an  audience 
not  limited  by  frontiers;  she  has  inaugurated 
her  Revolution  by  the  affirmation  of  principles 
which  are  essential  to  mankind. 

As  "Humanus,"  then,  Paine  attaches  himself 
to  France  as  the  missionary  of  that  progressive 
enfranchisement  which  he  proclaims.  But  he 
does  not  wish  her  to  be  an  armed  missionary. 
What  Paine  desires  is  not  the  clash  of  nationali- 
ties, still  less  their  effacement,  but  a  federation 
among  them,  with  a  "Parliament  of  Man,"  in 
which  reason,  by  the  agency  of  perpetual  arbitra- 
tion, would  organize  peace.  Paris  should  be  its 
seat,  for  it  is  of  Paris  that  men  speak  the  most. 

225 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

There  a  common  flag  would  float  composed  of 
the  flags  of  all  nations,  a  veritable  scarf  of  iris 
in  which  all  the  shades  of  the  prism  would  succeed 
one  another  as  in  the  celestial  bow.  A  dream, 
no  doubt.  No  matter ;  in  the  colors  of  the  dream 
I  recognize  the  mark  of  a  mind  which  Chris- 
tianity has  liberated  from  all  tribal  fetichism. 
How  could  Quakers,  who  call  themselves  the 
Society  of  Friends,  say:  "Our  friendship  stops 
here;  this  is  its  exact  frontier;  beyond,  there  is 
a  clear  field  for  violence"?  Thus  the  pupil  of 
Quakers,  instead  of  representing  to  himself 
society  as  a  tower  with  stones  superimposed  upon 
one  another  and  without  any  ladder,  sees  transi- 
tions everywhere,  the  possibilities  of  ascent  every- 
where, and  he  holds  it  as  a  sacred  obligation 
never  to  prevent  them,  never  to  keep  the  people 
down. 

Thomas  Paine,  then,  felt  in  the  very  recesses 
of  his  soul  that  be  belonged  to  a  society  of  per- 
sons who  had  no  authority  over  others,  no  claim 
to  exercise  power  of  any  kind,  and  who  were  not 
considered  entitled  to  any  consideration  whatever. 
And,  in  addition  to  the  severities  of  power,  they 
had  to  endure  the  insults  of  the  brutal  mob.  On 
every  side  they  found  all  the  outlets  closed 
against  them,  which,  if  they  were  open,  would 
22G 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

have  allowed  the  Quakers  to  enjoy  the  ease  and 
comfort  that  render  men  insensible  to  injustice. 
These  were  fortunate  persecutions,  and  from 
them  has  sprung  the  determination  to  subordi- 
nate all  other  social  ends  to  respect  for  the  rights 
of  man.  If  the  affirmation  of  the  first  republi- 
can thesis  is  a  progress  of  justice,  this  progress 
had  to  be  won  from  the  very  impossibility  of 
living  otherwise,  which  was  made  manifest  by 
innumerable  errors  and  sufferings,  since  forgot- 
ten. It  is  the  common  law,  already  recognized 
by  the  ancient  sages:  "Injustice  gives  birth  to 
Sorrow,  and  Sorrow  gives  birth  to  Justice." 

I  have  tried  to  answer  this  question,  in  which, 
as  it  seemed  to  me,  all  the  permanent  interest  of 
the  career  of  Thomas  Paine  is  contained:  how 
did  it  happen  that,  about  the  year  1770,  an 
obscure  man,  in  a  dependent  position,  the  subject 
of  an  ancient  monarchy,  was  able  to  conceive,  and 
that  with  absolute  assurance,  a  certain  political 
system  as  being  both  desirable  and  realizable, 
which  to-day  appears  very  difficult  to  be  realized, 
although  dictated  by  sound  sense,  and  which  was 
then  unheard  of?  Most  decidedly,  it  was  not  a 
sudden  and  fortuitous  outburst.  Such  a  dis- 
covery was  the  result  of  long  preparations  under 

227 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

divers  influences  of  which   some  were   explicit 
traditions  and  others  latent  instincts. 

It  is  clear  that  heredity,  social  condition  and 
religion  acted  together  upon  Thomas  Paine,  who 
was  simultaneously  an  Englishman,  a  man  of  the 
people  and  a  Quaker  Christian.  The  formula, 
according  to  which  these  forces  were  tempered, 
was  simply  his  own  temperament.  If,  for 
example,  he  separated  himself  from  the  Quakers 
of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  because  their 
principles  of  non-resistance  would  have  led  them 
to  endure  everything  from  the  Crown  of  Eng- 
land rather  than  resolve  to  stuff  bullets  into  their 
muskets ;  if  he  gave,  to  the  great  scandal  of  these 
peaceful  people,  the  signal  for  the  battle  in  behalf 
of  right,  it  was  because  another  English  charac- 
teristic of  quite  an  opposite  nature  had  tempered 
his  Quakerism ;  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  none 
of  the  English  arrogance  about  him  which  might 
have  hindered  him  from  becoming  a  naturalized 
French  citizen,  and  he  remained  to  the  very  end 
quite  simply  a  friend  of  the  human  race;  and 
the  reason  for  his  action  in  both  cases  is  obvious : 
he  had  been  as  closely  associated  with  a  Christian 
community  as  he  was  with  popular  life;  if, 
finally,  he  had  freed  himself,  on  attaining  ma- 
turity, from  the  Quaker  principle  of  passive 
228 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

resistance,  it  was  because  that  opulent  plebeian 
nature  of  his  could  no  longer  be  kept  apart  from 
the  joys  of  efficacious  activity.  We  may  be  as- 
sured, moreover,  that  his  practical  knowledge  of 
science  would  in  any  case  have  conducted  him  to 
a  religion  of  pure  reason. 

All  this  work  of  combination  had  been  accom- 
plished in  him  during  the  period  which  in  every 
fecund  spirit  is  essentially  the  period  of  fecun- 
dity :  namely  that  of  obscure,  meditative  groping. 
Such  a  spirit  accomplishes  nothing,  men  say ;  but 
it  is  accomplishing  its  own  formation. 

After  his  arrival  in  America,  none  of  the 
adventures  of  Thomas  Paine  will  modify  his  con- 
victions, which  then  received  their  final  form. 
From  this  moment  his  inner  biography  loses 
almost  all  importance,  and,  at  the  same  time,  his 
external  biography  begins  to  become  singularly 
striking. 

It  is  my  intention  to  dwell  only  slightly  on 
the  latter. 

To  pass  from  London  to  New  York  in  that 
day  was  to  change  from  sky  to  sky,  not  from 
kingdom  to  kingdom.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  the  English  subject  was  still  in  Eng- 
land. There  was  nothing  to  foretell  to  the  indi- 
gent pilgrim  (nor  to  anyone  else,  either)  that  the 

229 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

American  colonies  were  on  the  eve  of  constitu- 
ting themselves  a  distinct  nation,  and  that  he 
had  just  arrived  in  time  to  assist  them.  When 
he  returns  to  his  natal  soil  twelve  years  later, 
this  American  land,  which  he  is  now  seeking  as 
a  temporary  asylum  against  famine,  will  have 
become  his  mother  country  forever.  That  nation 
is  our  mother  country  really  whose  true  destiny 
we  have  discovered  and  adopted  as  our  own; 
who,  therefore,  could  be  more  authentically 
American  among  the  sons  of  the  first  settlers 
on  the  coast  than  this  newly  landed  emigrant? 
Having  first  discovered  in  himself  the  goal 
assigned  to  the  new  nation,  he  is  the  first  to  point 
it  out  to  all  the  others.  He  is  as  much  American 
as  Jeremiah  is  a  Jew  and  Demosthenes  an 
Athenian. 

It  was  in  an  article,  chiefly  directed  toward 
the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  and  signed 
Humanus,  that  he  mentioned  the  fateful  word 
Independence.  Yet  this  article  was  not  at  all 
his  political  manifesto;  it  was  the  imprecation  of 
a  humanitarian  Christian,  revolted  by  the  inhu- 
manity of  the  world,  and  inclined,  according  to 
the  usual  custom,  to  blame  the  Government  for 
it.  Thus,  Polyeucte,  in  the  tragedy,  does  not 
believe  he  is  giving  utterance  to  a  political 
230 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

prophecy  when  he  curses  the  Emperor  Decius, 
"that  tiger  athirst  for  blood,"  and  predicts  that 
"his  hour  has  come." 

But,  once  the  word  "independence"  had  been 
launched,  Thomas  Paine  is  irresistibly  impelled 
to  deliver  himself  of  his  whole  thought  at  a 
bound:  with  autonomy  must  be  joined  republi- 
canism: all  that  Utopia,  all  that  blissful  dream 
which  the  plebeian  Quaker  used  to  caress  last 
summer  in  the  streets  of  London — why,  a  crevice 
has  now  been  opened  through  which  it  can  enter 
and  meet  with  a  probable  and  speedy  realization ! 
The  hour  is  striking.  Moreover,  the  uncertainty 
in  which  he  sees  other  men  sunk  is  but  a  halting- 
stage  for  the  man  who  has  absolute  certainty. 
Later  on,  Paine  will  say:  "It  was  the  cause  of 
America  that  suddenly  made  me  an  author." 
And  thus  "Common  Sense"  came  into  being. 

"Common  Sense"  was  like  a  flash  from  the 
heavens.  It  was  just  what  the  time  and  the  men 
of  the  time  needed.  The  effect  was  prodigious. 
For  the  first  time,  the  colonies  perceived  suddenly 
what  they  wanted  and  that  what  they  wanted 
was  possible.  If  it  be  asked  how  could  Paine, 
but  newly  arrived  from  England,  and  the  Ameri- 
can public  come  to  such  an  understanding  all  at 
once,  it  must  be  remembered  that  community  of 

231 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

origin,  language,  and,  above  all,  of  religious 
sentiment,  predisposed  the  minds  of  both  hemi- 
spheres to  a  mutual  understanding.  The 
Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  found  again  their 
principles  in  the  missionary  whom  English  Qua- 
kerism had  sent  to  them.  The  Non-conformists, 
who  had  emigrated  of  yore  for  the  sake  of 
religion,  and  whose  republican  temperament  had 
been  nurtured  by  their  meditations  on  the  Bible 
and  by  their  subjection  to  arbitrary  power, 
formed  a  ready  audience  for  the  Good  Tidings. 
For  that  matter,  the  writings  of  Paine  were 
much  more  effective  in  winning  success  for  his 
ideas  than  fame  for  himself.  As  he  preserved 
his  anonymity,  many  people,  who  were  entirely 
impregnated  by  his  opinions,  knew  nothing  of 
the  author.  Once  when  he  had  come  to  a  meet- 
ing where  his  name  did  not  excite  any  attention, 
he  had  only  to  tell  them  that  he  was  Common 
Sense  to  arouse  the  most  fiery  enthusiasm  in 
one  part  of  his  audience  and  cries  of  fury  in  the 
other.  As  for  money,  he  would  never  touch  it, 
and  he  had  to  contribute  a  certain  number  of 
guineas  from  his  own  ill-furnished  purse  to  the 
expenses  of  the  publication  of  the  book  which 
was  soon  seen  in  every  hand. 

"Common  Sense"  opened  to  the  Americans  a 
232 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

perilous  future.  They  committed  themselves  to 
it.  Six  months  after  Paine  had  spoken,  the  ma- 
jority of  them  were  converted  to  his  opinion. 
Henceforth  the  ties  that  bound  them  to  the 
mother  country  were  loosened.  The  die  was 
cast. 

As  for  the  writer  who  had  inspired  the  efforts 
of  the  states,  if  he  were  now  to  stand  apart  from 
their  cause,  he  would  have  incurred  the  blame  of 
having  hurled  a  whole  people  into  the  direst 
dangers.  But  he  showed  that  his  conviction  was 
serious.  He  shouldered  a  musket  as  a  simple 
volunteer,  not  having  the  fear  of  his  Quaker 
coreligionists  before  his  eyes,  was  in  the  retreat 
on  the  Delaware,  saw  with  his  own  eyes  the 
wretched  encampments,  the  night  marches  under 
the  rain,  starvation,  bleeding  wounds,  splendid 
young  fellows  dead  or  at  the  last  gasp,  saw, 
indeed,  what  were  the  consequence  and  the  pay- 
ment of  the  logical  propositions  which  he  had 
written  down  tranquilly  at  his  work-table. 

Discouragement  soon  spread  through  Wash- 
ington's poorly  fed  and  badly  equipped  army, 
and  despair  and  lassitude  were  universal. 

Then  Paine  becomes  the  self-constituted 
orator  of  the  forces.  He  sets  about  writing,  in 
the  very  bivouacs,  under  the  stress  of  present  ne- 
i-i8  233 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

cessity.  In  this  fashion  was  begun  that  series  of 
effective  pamphlets,  called  severally  the  "Crisis," 
which,  for  intensity  of  accent  and  prompt 
unraveling  of  difficulties,  may  be  compared  to  the 
"Philippics"  of  Demosthenes.  These  papers  suc- 
ceeded one  another  at  irregular  intervals, 
beginning  on  November  22,  1776,  and  ending 
on  October  29,  1782.  The  first  is  a  mili- 
tary exhortation  after  the  manner  of  the 
ancients.  Washington  ordered  it  to  be  read 
aloud  in  his  camp  to  every  corporal's  guard. 
Another  is  addressed  to  Lord  Howe,  warning 
him,  in  the  interest  of  his  own  country,  not  to 
continue  the  campaign;  another  brings  home  to 
the  American  people  the  lamentable  dearth  of 
soldiers ;  the  aim  of  another  is  to  refute  the  auton- 
omist prejudices  of  some  of  the  states,  and  to 
plead  for  federal  union ;  another,  when  the  coun- 
try is  on  the  road  to  bankruptcy,  proposes 
practical  measures  for  strengthening  the  public 
credit. 

Another,  after  the  successful  close  of  the 
war,  thanks  to  French  assistance,  proves  that  it 
must  always  be  America's  duty  to  remain  faith- 
ful to  the  ally  of  her  evil  days ;  the  last,  now  that 
peace  has  been  finally  established,  is  a  farewell 
234 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

to  the  public  and  an  outline  of  the  organization 
which  it  is  time  to  give  the  new  nation. 

Each  of  these  papers,  lightly  thrown  off,  is 
his  gift  to  the  insurgents  of  a  thought  that  is 
constantly  lucid.  And  this  lucidity  is  immediate ; 
for  Paine  writes  under  the  first  shock  of  events. 
He  is  with  Washington  at  Valley  Forge,  among 
those  five  thousand  men  in  whom  even  their  chief 
has  no  longer  confidence,  and  who  crouch  in  mud 
huts  like  beavers;  he  goes  in  a  sloop  to  recon- 
noiter  Fort  Mifflin  under  an  English  cannonade, 
and  he  finds  it  nothing  but  a  heap  of  ruins ;  thus, 
every  day  he  verifies  with  his  own  eyes  failure  in 
all  directions ;  and  these  are  the  very  occasions  he 
chooses  to  proclaim  the  approaching  triumph  of 
the  cause  of  Independence  and  the  near  destruc- 
tion of  English  power!  And  the  event  does  not 
beliethis  prognostics. 

Well,  the  Revolution  had  come  to  an  end.  It 
would  have  been  natural  to  believe  that  the  office 
of  "guide  for  revolutions"  was  to  come  to  an  end 
also.  This  American  Revolution  had  been  so 
great  and  singular  that  it  was  hard  to  conjecture 
that  the  same  men  should  be  reserved  to  see 
another  revolution  still  greater  and  still  more 
singular. 

It  was  simply  the  wish  to  consult  the  Acad- 

235 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

emy  of  Sciences  in  Paris  on  the  construction  of 
an  iron  arch  five  hundred  feet  wide  that  led 
Thomas  Paine  back  to  the  old  continent.  He 
arrived  in  Paris  at  the  beginning  of  summer, 
1787.  Note  this  date,  and  you  will  recognize  the 
man  fated  to  land  always  at  the  point  where  the 
tocsin  is  sounding.  However,  he  is  at  first 
occupied  with  questions  not  requiring  any  special 
activity. 

He  frequents  the  company  of  certain  philoso- 
phers who  are  friends  of  Franklin  and  are 
adepts  in  mechanical  science.  As  he  does  not 
speak  French,  his  circle  is  necessarily  limited. 
But  this  small  circle  is,  as  we  know  to-day,  the 
first  nucleus  of  the  republican  party  in  France. 
Those  who  form  it  are  persons  equally  ready  to 
discuss  in  English  the  mechanism  of  an  iron 
bridge  or  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
In  addition  to  the  Marquis  and  Marquise  de  la 
Fayette,  patrons  of  all  Americans,  there  are  the 
Marquis  de  Condorcet,  geometer,  philosopher, 
statesman  and  free  thinker,  and  his  wife,  an 
enthusiast  about  Paine  and  now  busy  with  a 
translation  of  his  works;  Brissot,  later  on  to  be 
the  leader  of  the  Giron&e,  who  had  traveled  in 
America  and  has  lately  founded  a  Societe  des 
Amis  des  Noirs  that  is  trying  to  interest  fashion- 
236 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

able  people  in  a  cause  of  which  Paine  is  the 
prophet;  Danton,  who  is  soon  a  very  intimate 
friend  of  Paine,  and  a  few  others,  all  devout 
disciples  of  "Common  Sense,"  and  they  all  know 
English. 

In  fact,  we  have  here  the  staff,  all  united 
and  ready,  of  Le  Republicain,  the  journal  that 
in  some  years  will  have  its  own  role  in  the 
Revolution  but  will  expire  with  its  fourth  num- 
ber. I  consider  this  moment  of  contact  between 
Paine's  mind  and  theirs  solemn.  It  is  now  that 
the  grafting  begins  to  take  hold  on  the  old  tree. 

When  the  year  1790  is  about  to  expire,  Paine, 
the  engineer,  is  in  England,  anxious  concerning 
the  success  of  his  iron  bridge,  a  model  of  which 
is  exposed  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of  London.  It 
was  at  the  very  moment  when  Burke's  "Reflec- 
tions on  the  Revolution  in  France"  appeared. 
The  entire  spirit  of  conservatism  is  there  unfolded 
with  the  superb  eloquence  and  arrogance  of  a 
master  in  statesmanship  rebuking  his  pupils. 
The  mixture  of  contempt  for  man  and  respect 
for  established  power  that  marked  the  entire 
work,  the  blending  of  that  political  optimism 
and  philosophic  pessimism  which  are  the  charac- 
teristic qualities  of  the  authoritative  and  well- 
contented  conservative,  was  but  too  well  known 

237 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

to  Paine  as  the  deadly  enemy  of  every  effort 
to  attain  enfranchisement. 

It  was  necessary  to  speak,  the  more  so  as 
Burke  had  disdainfully  passed  aside  as  unworthy 
of  notice  the  marks  of  sympathy  given  to  the 
French  revolutionists  by  Priestley,  Price,  and  the 
radical  associations,  and,  as  the  "Reflections" 
were  immediately  translated,  and  went  through 
five  editions  in  France  in  a  single  year,  it  was  evi- 
dent that,  if  no  Englishman^  replied  to  them,  the 
idea  would  spread  through  France  that  all  Eng- 
land was  indifferent  to  the  agonies  of  justice. 
How  could  the  misunderstandings  between  the 
two  peoples  ever  be  dissipated  if  this  belief  was 
established? 

Paine  for  the  second  time  in  his  life  heard  a 
sudden  call.  Hardly  had  he  finished  the  last 
page  of  the  "Reflections"  at  the  Red  Lion  in 
Islington  before  he  asked  for  pen  and  ink,  and 
set  about  composing  his  reply  in  the  inn  itself. 
In  this  fashion,  was  dashed  off,  in  less  than  three 
months,  the  first  part  of  the  "Rights  of  Man." 

It  is  a  strange  book.  Burke  is  there  ban- 
tered, parodied,  caricatured  by  his  friend  of  a 
few  years  before.  The  most  insulting  abuse  is 
heaped  on  the  monarchy  of  George  III,  with  its 
venal,  incoherent  Parliament,  with  the  jobberies 
238 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

and  mania  for  every  sort  of  oppression  of  its 
unprincipled  government,  and  above  all,  with  the 
decay  and  rottenness  which  are  the  natural  con- 
sequences of  heredity  of  office  and  heredity  of 
royalty.  Then  the  journalist,  transforming 
himself  into  the  historian,  gives  what  he  regards 
as  a  just  estimate  of  the  American  Revolution, 
based  on  his  personal  reminiscences,  and  pro- 
ceeds to  relate,  on  the  testimony  of  his  Parisian 
friends,  the  beginnings  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Finally,  with  all  the  serenity  of  the  philosopher, 
he  lays  down  dogmatically  the  principles  which 
must  guide  any  government  that  wishes  to  be- 
stow effective  protection  on  equality  of  rights. 

The  tone  of  the  entire  work  is  outspoken  and 
rough;  it  bears  no  resemblance  to  the  gorgeous 
and  stately  drapery,  fashioned  after  the  antique, 
in  which  the  eloquence  of  Burke  is  grabed;  we 
must  rather  find  its  parallel  in  the  coarse  cotton 
homespun  out  of  which  are  made  the  shirts  of 
the  workman.  Not  only  was  the  delicate  epider- 
mis of  the  literary  classes  excoriated,  but  the 
entire  English  people  shuddered,  fairly  quivered 
with  rage;  for  it  is  a  people  obstinately  smitten 
with  its  venerable  servitude,  and  the  least  revolu- 
tionary that  has  ever  existed. 

Who,  then,  is  this  public  disturber  who  would 

239 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

throw  everything  into  confusion?  Is  he  even 
qualified  to  speak?  No,  he  is  a  bad  Englishman, 
who  glorifies  all  that  is  done  on  the  other  side  of 
the  water.  Let  him  take  himself  off  to  France, 
if  he  find  more  reason  there  than  we  have  here! 
And,  as  the  writer's  face  is  not  well  known,  a 
supposed  effigy  of  him  is  incased  in  stays  by 
workingmen,  before  being  burned,  in  memory  of 
the  trade  Paine  once  followed  at  Thetford.  This 
little  feature,  this  mockery  of  the  artisan's  con- 
dition by  a  crowd  composed  of  artisans,  proves 
to  what  a  degree  a  long  habit  of  slavery  may 
deform  and  degrade  the  human  mind.  Such 
is  the  support  supplied  by  the  poor  to  their 
defenders. 

Burke  himself,  disconcerted  by  the  attack, 
declared  with  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders,  that  the 
only  refutation  worthy  of  the  "Rights  of  Man" 
was  that  of  criminal  justice.  And,  in  fact,  all  the 
agencies  of  criminal  justice  were  put  in  motion 
against  Paine.  But  before  they  could  reach  him 
he  was  safe  in  Paris. 

Certainly,  the  position  of  Paine,  first  as  an 
accused  traitor,  then  as  a  proscribed  exile,  greatly 
enhanced  his  prestige  in  France.  Among  the 
Frenchmen  who  applauded  with  transports  at 
Calais,  Amiens  and  Paris  there  were  few  who 
240 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

ever  saw  the  pages  of  "Common  Sense"  and  the 
"Rights  of  Man."  They  hailed  him,  above  all, 
because  he  wals  "the  man  who  had  suffered  for 
the  cause."  It  is  enough  in  France  to  make  a 
man  popular,  and,  at  electioneering  time,  to 
make  him  a  deputy.  Thomas  Paine  was  elected, 
then,  deputy  to  the  National  Convention  in  four 
Departments.  So,  from  being  an  enthusiastic 
but  distant  spectator  of  the  French  Revolution, 
lo,  all  of  a  sudden,  he  becomes  an  actor  in  it. 

All  France  doubtless  knew  that  he  was  a 
republican.  Not  only  had  thousands  of  transla- 
tions of  his  "Common  Sense"  and  the  "Rights  of 
Man"  been  sold,  but  the  author  had  assumed  the 
attitude  of  a  champion  of  republicanism  more 
than  a  year  previously  on  two  notable  occasions : 
on  the  first  of  July,  1791,  by  the  publication  of  a 
manifesto,  and  on  the  eighth  of  July,  by  a  public 
discussion  with  Sieves  on  the  principles  of  gov- 
ernment. The  first  was  placarded  on  the  walls 
of  Paris  immediately  after  the  King's  return 
from  Varennes. 

It  is  true  the  denunciation  of  this  manifesto 
was  almost  universal.  One  deputy  said:  "It  is 
ridiculous  to  take  the  trouble  of  censuring  an 
opinion  so  wild  and  extravagant."  Another: 
"The  author  of  this  manifesto  is  a  lunatic,  and 

241 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

should  be  handed  over  to  the  care  of  his  rela- 
tives"; a  third  jeers  at  "the  ridiculous  chimera  of 
a  French  republic."  Robespierre  is  disgusted: 
"I  will  not,"  he  says,  "deign  to  answer  certain 
imputations  of  republicanism  which  some  persons 
would  attach  to  the  cause  of  justice  and  truth." 
Thus  all  denounce  as  vain  and  delirious  the 
prophecy  of  an  event  that  will  be  realized  in  less 
than  fifteen  months  in  the  midst  of  unanimous 
applause.  So  true  it  is  that  the  people,  far  from 
marching  of  their  own  accord  toward  the  future, 
have  to  be  dragged  toward  it  backwards,  and  then 
they  fall  into  it. 

However,  the  flight  to  Varennes  had  started 
the  question  of  a  monarchy  or  a  republic.  On  the 
sixth  of  July  Sieves  published  an  article  in  the 
Moniteur,  wherein  he  attempted  to  demonstrate, 
with  his  usual  dogmatism,  that  men  are  freer  in 
a  monarchy  than  in  a  republic.  Paine  entered 
the  lists  against  him  with  open  vizor.  He 
addressed  a  long  letter  to  him  which  the  Moni- 
teur  published,  with  Sieyes's  reply. 

Paine  declared  himself  the  frank  and  intrepid 
enemy  of  the  form  of  government  known  as  mon- 
archy, and  he  did  so,  taking  his  stand  on  the 
principles  of  humanity,  fraternity  and  liberty  for 
all,  which  are  exactly  the  principles  of  the 
242 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

"Rights  of  Man,"  He  demanded,  therefore,  a 
representative  government,  but  such  a  govern- 
ment would  not  be  sincere  except  with  an  execu- 
tive elected  by  the  people  and  dependent  on  the 
people.  And  this  fact  was  being  every  day 
demonstrated  by  the  experience  of  England. 
Such  a  proposition  plainly  bound  together  mu- 
tual government  and  the  rights  of  man,  the 
third  proposition  of  the  republican  thesis  added 
to  the  first  two,  which  were  approved  of  by 
Sieves  himself.  Sieves  retorted  that  the  republic 
of  Paine  was  a  "poliarchie"  which  would  disin- 
tegrate national  unity,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
would  compromise  the  division  of  powers,  and,  as 
a  necessary  consequence,  would  compromise 
liberty.  This  might  be  true,  but  it  was  to  change 
the  question. 

Such,  then,  was  this  controversy,  to  which  I 
have  reason  for  believing  the  five  "republican" 
friends  of  Paine  brought  a  concerted  plan,  for 
on  the  same  day  on  which  Paine's  letter  appeared 
in  the  Moniteur,  Condorcet  published  in  the  Re- 
publicain  a  scathing  sarcasm  upon  monarchical 
prejudice.  But  what  were  these  five  republicans 
among  a  nation  that  had  been  monarchical  for  ten 
centuries?  They  were  not  listened  to.  Their 
time  had  not  come. 

243 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

A  year  later,  however,  events  have  taken  a 
rapid  turn;  the  country  is  "in  danger";  it  looks 
as  if  the  royal  war-lord  has  failed  in  his  duty; 
and  the  urgent  character  of  the  peril  has  forced 
the  nation  to  decide  on  governing  itself  or  else 
abandoning  itself  to  the  fate  to  which  it  has  been 
abandoned  by  its  sovereign;  and  the  phantom  of 
royal  power  has  vanished  on  the  tenth  of  August. 
I  am  not  surprised  that,  on  this  occasion,  more 
than  one  person  called  to  mind  the  republican 
declarations  which  had  made  him  shrug  his 
shoulders  the  year  preceding.  On  the  republic 
discovering  that  the  republic  was  a  fact,  the  mass 
of  Frenchmen  became  republican,  republican 
because  of  their  very  conservatism,  as  is  the  way 
with  Frenchmen  generally,  or  rather  because  of 
the  principle  of  gravitation  that  exists  in  every 
mass  of  human  beings.  So,  the  opinions  of  the 
day  have  at  last  exactly  coincided  with  those 
expressed  in  the  manifesto  of  Paine.  It  is  recog- 
nized that  he  has  uttered  the  word  which  solves 
the  problem.  And  so,  with  the  help  of  some  who 
lately  fought  against  him,  Thomas  Paine  is 
elected  to  the  Convention  as  the  standard-bearer 
of  the  republic.  I  have  already  explained  that 
the  persecution  of  the  English  Government  had 
already  rendered  him  popular  in  France.  To 
244 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

vote  for  this  foreigner,  therefore,  becomes  the  act 
of  a  patriot. 

When  our  honest  friend  took  his  seat  in  the 
Salle  du  Manege,  where  the  Convention  at  first 
held  its  sessions ;  when  he  saw  himself  lost  among 
those  seven  hundred  emphatic,  gesticulating 
Frenchmen,  I  imagine  he  must  have  felt  not  alto- 
gether comforted  by  the  success  of  his  principles. 
On  the  twenty-first  of  September,  the  formula  of 
the  fateful  break  with  the  past  was  enunciated, 
after  a  philippic  from  Gregoire:  "  The  National 
Convention  decrees  unanimously  that  Royalty  is 
abolished  in  France."  And  then  there  were  cries 
and  applause  and  fraternal  kisses  and  arms  lifted 
up,  waving  pocket  handkerchiefs  and  canes  and 
hats,  even  in  the  lobbies  and  galleries.  All  this 
must  have  disgusted  Paine  not  a  little. 

He  was  present  at  the  debates,  but  to  a  certain 
extent  outside  them,  for  his  ignorance  of  French 
kept  him  beyond  the  magnetic  circle  of  words. 
He  sat  calmly  on  his  bench,  with  that  vague,  enig- 
matic smile  we  see  on  the  lips  of  the  deaf  and 
dumb  which  chills  the  spectator.  Yet  everyone 
turned  toward  him  as  toward  the  living  statue  of 
liberty.  The  enfranchisement  of  America  conse- 
crated him.  Moreover,  his  presence  in  the  midst 
of  Frenchmen,  with  that  of  Anacharsis  Clootz, 

245 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  Prussian,  seemed  to  signify  that  the  Conven- 
tion had  its  ramifications  in  every  country,  and 
this  was  congenial  to  its  pretension  to  legislate 
for  all  humanity. 

On  the  eleventh  of  October,  Paine  was  named 
on  the  Constitutional  Committee.  Among  the 
eight  members  elected  with  him,  he  found  his 
friends  Condorcet,  Brissot,  Danton,  who  would 
serve  him  as  interpreters,  and  his  old  antagonist, 
Sieves.  We  do  not  know  exactly  what  part  he 
took  in  the  labors  of  the  Committee;  but  it  is 
pretty  certain  that  he  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with 
the  project  of  Condorcet. 

If  we  analyze  this  project,  we  shall  discover 
some  of  the  English,  plebeian  and  Quaker  ideas 
which  I  have  already  expounded.  Universal 
suffrage  was  definitely  consecrated,  contrary  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Constituents  and  in  accordance 
with  that  of  the  radical  supporters  of  equality; 
the  principle,  not  of  toleration  in  the  religious 
order,  but  of  respect  for  convictions,  was  affirmed 
in  the  terms  of  the  Puritans ;  liberty  of  the  press 
and  of  all  manifestations  of  opinion  was  guaran- 
teed; universal  instruction  was  promulgated  as 
the  debt  of  society  to  its  members ;  all  heredity  in 
functions  were  abolished  as  absurd  and  tyranni- 
cal ;  finally,  the  censorship  of  the  people  over  the 
246 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

acts  of  the  national  representation  was  minutely 
organized:  any  citizen  could  protest  against  the 
whole  system  of  assemblies  that  went  on,  ever 
widening,  around  him ;  all  he  had  to  do  was  first 
to  win  over  fifty  citizens,  then  a  primary  assem- 
bly, then  the  primary  assemblies  of  a  commune, 
then  those  of  a  department,  and  finally  those  of 
the  entire  republic. 

Now  this  system  of  concentric  waves  was,  as 
I  have  pointed  out  before,  exactly  that  of  the 
Quaker  meetings.  Certainly  Condorcet  could 
have  found  a  model  for  it  nowhere  else.  And  let 
us  say,  by  the  way,  that  this  Constitution  is  the 
most  purely  republican  constitution  that  has  ever 
been  drafted  in  France. 

You  know  that  it  was  not  voted.  There  were 
others,  in  which,  however,  the  paragraphs  which 
exhibited  a  frank  confidence  in  the  intelligence  of 
the  people  were  prudently  altered,  and  religious 
liberty  was  restricted  from  fear  of  the  plots  of 
refractory  priests ;  the  Quaker  system  of  popular 
initiative  was  destroyed.  Whatever  was  demo- 
cratic in  the  edifice  was  borrowed  from  the  pro- 
ject of  Paine's  friend  Condorcet. 

But  no  sooner  is  the  republic  established  than 
it  begins  to  be  very  apparent  indeed  that  the 
fear  of  the  past  has  not  vanished.     The  past  has 

247 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

been  killed,  but,  then,  no  one  is  fully  sure,  and  it 
is  necessary  to  bury  it  speedily,  and  so  deep  that 
it  can  never  return.  Penalties  are  multiplied 
feverishly,  like  shovelfuls  of  earth.  That  most 
deadly  enemy  of  liberty,  the  panic  of  crowds,  has 
taken  hold  of  the  Assembly.  There  are  shrieks 
of  treason.     Death  to  the  traitors ! 

Thomas  Paine  knew  better  than  anyone 
could  know  from  mere  hearsay  what  this  sort  of 
patriotic  delirium  foreshadowed.  The  madmen 
who  had  sacked  the  house  of  his  friend  Priest- 
ley, and  who  glutted  their  hatred  by  burning 
manikins  supposed  to  resemble  himself  were  still 
busy  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel;  mobs  of 
the  same  character  he  saw  now,  always  ready  to 
rise  against  reason  and  liberty.  He  recognized 
them :  he  was  not  under  the  illusion  of  all,  or  near- 
ly all,  the  members  of  the  Convention  that  these 
anarchists  were  republicans.  He  did  everything 
in  his  power  to  resist  them,  in  harmony  with  that 
Quaker  prayer  of  his  in  which  he  asks  to  be  en- 
abled to  serve  the  people  in  spite  of  themselves! 
All  that  man  could  do  to  save  the  life  of  the  de- 
throned monarch  he  did. 

The  arguments  of  Thomas  Paine  fell  under 
two  categories:  that  of  policy  and  that  of  justice. 
He  invoked  the  experience  of  English  history, 
248 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

which  points  to  the  return  of  the  Stuarts  after 
the  beheading  of  Charles  I ;  while,  with  the  simple 
banishment  of  James  II,  it  was  all  over  with  their 
dynasty.  To  kill  the  man  is  not,  therefore,  to 
kill  royalty,  and  the  younger  brother  of  Louis 
XVI,  who  was  beyond  the  frontiers,  would  find 
himself  invested,  by  the  death  of  his  elder  brother 
and  the  captivity  of  his  nephew,  with  that  royal 
prestige  which  would  be  a  force  in  the  ranks  of 
the  enemies  of  France.  This  fault,  he  declares, 
must  be  avoided.  And  if  anyone  advances  the 
interests  of  justice  as  an  argument  for  a  dif- 
ferent procedure,  it  can  be  answered  that  the  cul- 
pability ought  to  be  shared  between  Louis  and  the 
National  Assembly,  which,  after  his  voluntary 
disappearance  and  his  return  from  Varennes,  re- 
stored him,  in  spite  of  himself,  to  the  throne. 

In  fine,  capital  punishments  may  be  needed  to 
prop  up  old  monarchies,  but  are  repugnant  to  a 
government  of  reason.  The  only  real  way  to  de- 
stroy royalty  is  to  destroy  also  the  governing 
methods  of  royalty  and,  first  of  all,  the  penalty 
of  death. 

We  know  that  the  vote  was  for  death.     Even 

Sieves,  who  had,  a  short  time  before,  defended  the 

monarchy  against  Paine,  voted  for  death,  calmly 

and  with  a  shrug  of  his  shoulders.     Thomas 

1-19  249 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Paine  alone,  when  his  name  was  called,  rose,  and, 
in  a  distinct  voice,  and  in  French  uttered  these 
words : 

I  vote  for  the  seclusion  of  Louis  until  the  end  of  the 
war,  and  for  perpetual  banishment  after  the  war. 

We  understand  to-day  the  consequences  of 
the  execution  of  Louis  XVI,  that  deed  of  weak- 
ness and  anger,  and  we  know  the  appalling  events 
which  followed  it,  so  that  sympathetic  spectators 
beyond  the  borders  of  France,  who  had  hoped 
that  the  definite  overthrow  of  a  regime  of  hand- 
cuffs and  arbitrary  imprisonment  was  the  herald 
of  the  closure  of  the  zoological  period  of  human 
history,  came  to  believe  that  even  despotism  is 
better  than  the  anarchy  of  a  murderous  popu- 
lace. Even  Paine,  with  all  his  robust  optimism, 
was  plunged  into  despair  by  the  bankruptcy  of 
his  ardently  desired  republic.  He  has  ingenu- 
ously confessed  that  he  drank  rum  to  distract  him 
from  the  scenes  around  him.  He  was  seen  more 
than  once  looking  wild  and  absent-minded;  this 
was  enough,  in  the  eyes  of  some,  to  justify  them 
in  branding  his  name  with  the  stain  of  an  ugly 
vice.  However,  that  he  did  not  lose  his  lucidity, 
his  letters,  written  at  that  period,  clearly  demon- 
strate. 

250 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Meanwhile,  the  Revolution  continued  to 
march  in  the  same  direction  into  which  the  weight 
of  its  first  errors  had  necessarily  dragged  it. 
After  the  National  Guard  has  demanded  and  ob- 
tained by  menaces  from  the  Assembly  its  consent 
to  the  death  of  twenty-nine  of  its  own  members, 
Robespierre  requires  a  law  to  be  passed  "against 
foreigners." 

Paine  employed  whatever  prestige  was  left 
him  in  saving  some  of  these  foreigners.  He 
spent  the  whole  summer  of  1793  in  retirement; 
he  lodged  in  an  old  abandoned  residence  of 
Madame  de  Pompadour.  However,  certain  per- 
sons soon  began  to  recall  the  fact  that  Paine  him- 
self was  not  to  the  manor  born;  he  came  from 
somewhere  else.  His  origin,  name,  language,  all 
proclaimed  the  foreigner.  Then,  he  was  the 
friend  of  the  Girondists,  and  the  dregs  of  the 
Parisian  populace  were  convinced  that  the  Giron- 
dists had  plotted  against  the  national  unity,  be- 
cause they  hated  Paris. 

The  month  of  October,  1793,  was  one  long 
crisis.  A  decree  of  the  Convention  enacted  on 
the  third  that  the  Girondists,  "as  agents  of  the 
English  faction,"  should  be  tried  before  the  Rev- 
olutionary Tribunal.  In  his  report,  the  Conven- 
tionnel  Amar  denounced  Thomas  Paine  as  equal- 

251 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ly  guilty — that  very  Thomas  Paine  whom  Eng- 
land   had,    notwithstanding,    proscribed.     "He 
had,"  said  Amar,  "dishonored  himself  during  the 
trial  of  Capet  by  supporting  Brissot  and  daring 
to  talk  about  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  United 
States  of  America."     But  Robespierre,  having 
caught  the  Girondists  in  his  net,  was  contented, 
and  scorned  to  support  an  accusation  against  the 
author  of  the  "Rights  of  Man"  for  the  present. 
However,  on  the  tenth  of  October,  it  was  decreed 
that  all  Englishmen  should  be  arrested;  several 
young  republicans  from  across  the  Channel  fled 
stealthily,  first  to  Paine,  then  beyond  the  frontier. 
Now,  on  the  very  day  upon  which  the  decree  was 
issued,  Paine,  on  his  side,  was  writing  to  Jeffer- 
son, advising  the  United  States  to  take  the  ini- 
tiative in  convoking  a  congress  of  peace  at  The 
Hague,  the  object  of  which  should  be  to  guaran- 
tee freedom  of  commerce  and  to  reconcile  hostile 
nations:  it  was  the  sole  chance  of  saving  the 
rights  of  man — with  innocent  internationalism 
on  one  side,  venomous  nationalism  on  the  other, 
and  both  of  them  manifesting  themselves  simul- 
taneously.    You  see  how  far  apart  the  gulf  had 
grown  between  Paine  and  the  Revolution. 

However,  he  sees  that  Brissot  and  his  other 
friends  have  been  cut  off  from  the  land  of  the 
252 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

living.  The  benches  around  him  in  the  Conven- 
tion were  empty,  and  the  Terrorists  soon  returned 
to  the  charge  against  Paine  himself.  Bourdon 
de  l'Oise  denounced  him  in  the  Convention  on 
the  twenty-sixth  of  December.  The  accusation, 
as  might  naturally  have  been  expected,  was  based 
on  his  "connivance  with  the  foreigners,"  and  this 
"connivance"  was  wrapped  up  in  deep  mystery. 
"I  know,"  said  Bourdon,  "that  he  has  been  in- 
triguing with  an  ex-agent  of  the  Foreign  Office." 
That  was  all ;  the  accusation  was  of  the  vaguest, 
and  therefore,  the  more  impossible  to  meet. 
When  Paine  became  aware  of  it,  he  was  some- 
what taken  aback  by  the  strange  methods  of  dis- 
cussion adopted  by  his  "Nationalist"  opponents. 
"I  should  have  wished,"  he  said,  in  his  honest 
simplicity,  "that  Bourdon  de  l'Oise  had  taken  the 
trouble  to  make  himself  better  acquainted  with 
the  facts,  before  rising  to  speak  against  me." 
Barrere  defended  the  thesis  upon  which  Bourdon 
had  founded  his  charge.  "It  is  necessary  that 
the  French  people  should  understand  how  injuri- 
ous to  its  interests  is  the  decree  that  allows  for- 
eigners to  form  a  part  of  the  national  representa- 
tion." Robespierre  was  silent,  but  the  Assembly 
divined  his  wishes.  It  showed  its  docility  by 
decreeing  that  "no  foreigner  could  be  permitted 

253 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

to  represent  the  French  people."  So  Thomas 
Paine  and  the  Prussian  humanitarian,  Anacharsis 
Clootz,  found  themselves  excluded  from  the 
Assembly. 

Two  days  afterwards,  the  Committee  of  Gen- 
eral Safety  ordered  them  both  to  be  arrested. 
Paine  had  passed  the  night  with  a  few  American 
friends,  and,  in  the  morning,  was  awakened  by  a 
commissary  of  police  and  some  of  the  National 
Guards.  A  perquisition  was  made  in  his  domi- 
cile in  his  presence,  and  he  was  then  conducted  to 
the  prison  of  the  Luxembourg,  where  he  remained 
for  more  than  eleven  months,  escaping  the  guil- 
lotine by  a  miracle. 

At  all  events,  this  tedious  incarceration  was 
a  benefit  to  him  in  one  respect :  he  was  not  caught 
up  in  the  deluge  of  tyranny  that  followed.  He 
was  really  freer  in  a  dungeon  than  he  would  have 
been  outside,  for  he  was,  at  least,  sheltered  from 
informers.  And  then,  during  the  spring  of 
1794,  France  had  to  submit  to  a  regime  that  was, 
in  every  respect,  directly  opposed  to  his  doctrine 
of  the  equality  of  rights  and  of  a  real  republic: 
there  was  not  a  single  liberty  for  which  he  had 
struggled  that  was  not  flouted  and  crushed. 

Yet,  for  all  that,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  terri- 
ble forces  that  had  been  let  loose,  Thomas  Paine 
254 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

was  quietly  philosophizing  in  his  prison.  He  was 
arranging  methodically  his  ideas  upon  religion. 
It  was  not  solely  in  order  to  distract  his  mind 
from  dwelling  on  external  events  that  he  was 
doing  so;  he  was  too  much  of  a  journalist  to  al- 
low his  thoughts  to  loosen  their  hold  on  the  actu- 
al; and,  in  fact,  the  question  of  religious  belief 
was  as  actual  at  this  period  as  anything  well  could 
be.  As  a  result  of  the  maxims  of  the  Terror, 
fetichism  began  to  have  a  new  and  flourishing 
life.  The  origin  of  all  the  deadly  errors  of  the 
time  lay  in  a  certain  confused  theology  which 
went  back  many  centuries  behind  the  Declaration 
of  Rights,  and  which  was,  in  all  respects,  the 
downright  contradiction  of  every  principle  em- 
bodied in  that  document.  For  the  universal, 
humanitarian,  rational  God  to  whom  Voltaire 
said:  "Thou  hast  not  given  us  hearts  to  hate  or 
hands  to  butcher  one  another ;  grant  that  all  men 
may  hold  in  horror  the  tyranny  that  would  con- 
strain the  soul!"  was  gradually  substituted  an 
ancient,  tribal  God,  jealous  and  murderous. 

He  was  not  known  as  God,  but  as  La  Patrie 
(the  Fatherland),  and  sometimes  even  as  Liber- 
ty, officially  as  Reason,  or  rather  as  the  Supreme 
Being.  But,  by  whatever  name  He  might  be 
styled,  He  was  actually  a  god  like  the  Yavah  of 

255 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Deborah  and  Gideon,  and  His  devotees,  the  "pa- 
triots," felt  themselves  bound  by  an  inexorable 
rule,  a  rule  obeyed  without  examination,  to  use 
the  saber  and  the  knife  of  the  guillotine  against 
"incivism,"  I  was  almost  going  to  say,  against 
the  "uncircumcized."  All  the  servants  of  this 
deity  had  to  swear  to  love  certain  objects  and  to 
hate  certain  other  objects.  The  wives,  children 
and  relatives  of  the  accused  were  all  involved  in 
the  same  destruction;  sepulchers  were  violated; 
war  was  waged  against  stones,  for  men  spoke  in 
the  Convention  the  language  that  is  found  on  a 
Moabite  or  Assyrian  stela,  talked  of  razing  rebel- 
lious cities,  like  Toulon  and  Lyons,  to  the  ground, 
and  of  abolishing  their  very  names,  so  as  to  kill 
them  even  in  the  memory  of  men.  And  this  new 
religion  has  a  whole  liturgy  of  rites — those  rites 
that  have  always  characterized  holy  wars,  or  the 
wars  of  "the  pure  with  the  impure" — before  God 
was  conceived  as  one  and  universal. 

The  time  had  arrived,  therefore,  for  the  grand 
idea  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  Humanity,  to 
be  resuscitated,  if  the  new  aberration  was  to  be 
successfully  confronted. 

And  this  is  just  what  Paine  endeavored  to  do 
in  his  "Age  of  Reason."  A  government  emanci- 
pated from  tyranny — and  that  was  the  sole  form 
256 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

of  government  he  favored — could  be  maintained 
only  among  a  people  that  had  arrived  at  the  "age 
of  reason";  that  is  to  say,  at  the  age  of  free 
thought.  The  man  who  does  not  natter  himself 
that  he  possesses  definite  truth,  but  who  modestly 
seeks  to  see  clearer,  and  who  has  learned  the 
habit  of  self-criticism,  is  alone  preserved  from 
wishing  to  tyrannize  over  consciences;  he  alone 
has  the  republican  spirit.  But  Robespierre  and 
his  acolytes,  being  disciples  of  Rousseau,  proved 
that  they  were  incapable  of  thinking  freely.  Did 
they  even  know  what  sort  of  a  thing  free  thought 
was  ?  In  their  natural  religion,,  they  dogmatized, 
they  excommunicated,  just  as  the  Pope  did  in  his 
literal  religion. 

Paine  had  observed  this  phenomenon,  he  had 
noted  that  the  intolerant  spirit  of  ecclesiastical 
persecution  had  been  transported  into  politics, 
and  that  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  had  taken 
the  place  of  the  Inquisition.  No  one  would  have 
expected  that  the  Profession  de  foi  du  Vicaire 
Savoyard  would  have  given  birth  to  such  servi- 
tude. Thomas  Paine  has  the  same  beliefs  as  the 
Vicaire  Savoyard,  but  his  method  is  very  differ- 
ent. He  is  not  like  the  village  priest,  an  "Or- 
pheus singing  primal  hymns" ;  he  is  an  utilitarian 
who    consults    experience.     Instead    of    setting 

257 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

forth  as  primary  truths  his  own  inner  illumina- 
tions, he  finds  the  marks  of  the  truth  of  a  religion 
in  the  proofs  it  is  able  to  show  of  its  capacity  for 
insuring  the  general  happiness  of  mankind.  A 
religion  which  stimulates  men  to  hate  and  slaugh- 
ter one  another  cannot  help  being  false.  The 
true  divine  is  the  human. 

True  religion,  then,  does  not  consist  in  pure 
good  will,  which  simply  renders  the  individual 
himself  blameless,  but  in  carefully  planned 
and  efficacious  beneficence.  It  is  the  imitation 
of  God  as  Creator  and  Father,  as  Reason  and 
Love.  Far  from  this  true  religion  having 
been  revealed  to  us  by  the  agency  of  a  primitive 
instinct  and  afterwards  again  discovered  in  the 
recesses  of  our  souls  "in  the  silence  of  preju- 
dices," it  is  a  recent  acquisition  of  experience, 
valuable  in  proportion  to  the  high  price  paid 
for  it,  and  in  proportion  to  its  salutary  consequen- 
ces. It  is  necessary  to  preserve  this  acquisition 
and  to  increase  it  still  further. 

Thus  the  conscience  of  the  modern  man  is 
really  a  product  of  history;  but  its  authority  is 
not  the  less  sure  on  that  account;  the  very 
reverse  is  the  case,  for  as  it  is  the  authority  of 
an  authentic  experiment  prosecuted  from  age 
to  age,  this  modern  conscience  has  the  right  to 
258 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

sit  in  judgment  on  the  religious  conceptions  of 
the  past;  in  the  Bible,  it  makes  selections;  it 
retains  all  that  is  conformable  to  reason  and 
promotes  praternity;  it  rejects  all  the  irrational 
marvels,  all  the  "Christian  mythology,"  and 
it  particularly  thrusts  aside  the  barbarous  com- 
mandments given  by  the  national  Jewish  God  to 
His  people.  The  exclusivism  of  the  synagogue  is 
certainly  detestable,  and  it  is  necessary  to  deprive 
it  of  the  prestige  it  has  gained  by  a  pretended  con- 
formity to  the  will  of  God.  The  philanthropist 
Jesus  did  his  best,  because  of  his  natural  good- 
ness, to  free  his  contemporaries  from  this  notion ; 
but  he  was  the  victim  of  the  kindliness  of  his 
heart,  a  victim  well  worthy  of  pity  and  still  an 
object  of  veneration. 

Such  is  a  summary  of  the  ideas  of  Paine  on 
religion;  they  are,  in  my  opinion,  much  nearer 
to  those  of  Voltaire  than  to  those  of  Rousseau; 
but  they  differ  from  Voltaire  in  tone  and  accent, 
and  are  far  more  popular,  serious  and  tender. 

None  of  the  pamphlets  of  Paine  won  him 
more  enemies  than  this  little  book  of  rational  the- 
ology. He  touched  the  English  reader  on  his 
sensitive  point,  his  reverence  for  the  "Holy 
Scriptures."  From  that  moment,  the  malig- 
nant hatred  of  the  pious  met  him  at  every  turn 

259 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  blackened  his  character  with  indefatigable 
zeal. 

Yet,  it  had  never  been  his  intention  to  wound 
the  feelings  of  anybody;  all  his  purpose  was  to 
render  testimony  to  the  truth  as  he  saw  it.  He 
had  written  the  "Age  of  Reason"  with  profound 
conviction:  it  was  to  be  his  last  will  and  testa- 
ment. He  completed  it  in  prison,  in  daily  ex- 
pectation of  death,  which  everything  predicted  to 
be  inevitable.  From  the  cells  next  his  own,  he  saw 
the  departure,  in  tumbril  after  tumbril,  of  He- 
rault  de  Sechelles,  Clootz,  Camille  Desmoulins, 
Danton,  etc.,  all  gagged  by  their  judges,  as  had 
been  the  Girondists.  In  a  single  night,  168 
prisoners  were  dragged  from  the  Luxembourg, 
and  of  these  160  were  guillotined  the  next  day. 
What  chance  had  Paine,  then,  of  surviving  them? 
Doubtless  he  was  an  American  citizen;  but  Gou- 
verneur  Morris,  the  official  representative  of  the 
United  States,  had  abandoned  him.  Some  of 
his  fellow-citizens  settled  in  France  addressed, 
indeed,  a  petition  to  the  Convention  (January 
27,  1794)  praying  for  his  liberation;  but  at  that 
very  moment,  Vadier,  one  of  the  accusers  of  the 
man  they  were  trying  to  save,  was  president  of 
the  Assembly;  Vadier,  instead  of  answering  yes 
or  no,  buried  the  protest  under  a  heap  of  mean- 
260 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

ingless  phrases.  Paine  was,  therefore,  to  all  ap- 
pearances, lost.  He  was  undisturbed,  devoting 
all  his  care  to  the  preservation  of  his  papers  and 
the  composition  of  a  farewell  dedication  to  his 
fellow-citizens  of  North  America. 

The  circumstance  which  saved  his  life  was 
quite  fortuitous:  it  was  simply  the  negligence  of 
his  jailers.  The  door  of  his  cell  was  open  and 
thrown  back  against  the  wall  of  the  corridor  on 
the  night  when  a  keeper  went  round  to  chalk  on 
it  the  death  sign  for  the  following  morning.  In 
a  fit  of  absent-mindedness  he  wrote  the  name  of 
Paine  on  the  inside  of  the  door.  The  commis- 
sary who,  before  daybreak,  passed  along  the  cor- 
ridor, ordering  the  condemned  prisoners  to  come 
out  of  their  cells,  saw  nothing  on  one  particular 
door,  and  went  on.  Then  came  the  ninth  Ther- 
midor,  the  downfall  of  the  Terror  and  the  gen- 
eral jail  delivery. 

Yes,  delivery  for  the  other  captives;  Paine, 
who  had  been  forgotten  by  the  executioners,  was 
now  forgotten  by  the  liberators.  He  wrote  to 
the  Convention  on  the  nineteenth  Thermidor,  re- 
minding it  that  he  was  still  in  existence  and  de- 
manding his  release;  the  communication  never 
reached  the  Legislature,  so  he  continued  to  crouch 
in  that  Luxembourg  cell  of  his  the  whole  autumn ; 

261 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

he  was  very  ill,  exhausted  hy  the  bad  air  and  the 
bad  food,  and  suffering  from  an  abscess  in  the 
hip  which  was  rapidly  undermining  his  health. 
Fortunately  for  him,  his  friend  Monroe  had  re- 
placed his  personal  enemy,  Morris,  as  United 
States  Minister.  Monroe  at  once  interfered,  and 
Paine  was  restored  to  freedom.  The  author  of 
the  "Age  of  Reason"  was,  then,  again  among  the 
living.  The  decree  excluding  him  from  the  Con- 
vention being  annulled,  he  again  took  his  seat  in 
it  on  the  eighth  of  December,  like  the  pallid  ghost 
of  the  days,  already  far  distant,  when  the  re- 
public had  been  inaugurated  with  shouts  and  hur- 
rahs. Of  the  nine  members  of  the  Constitutional 
Committee  only  two  were  left :  Sieyes,  who  owed 
his  safety  to  his  pliancy,  and  Paine,  who  never 
bent  to  anything  or  anybody. 

After  the  Terror  had  been  once  banished,  it 
was  the  terror  of  the  Terror  that  governed.  The 
pendulum  had  swung  backward.  Just  as  in 
1792,  all  imaginable  measures  were  adopted  to 
prevent  the  slightest  possibility  of  the  revival  of 
royal  despotism  and  of  the  past,  so,  two  years  la- 
ter, all  energies  were  devoted  to  the  task  of  ren- 
dering the  existence  of  a  new  Robespierre  forever 
impossible  and  of  killing  forever  the  recent  past, 
more  hated  than  that  of  old.  The  longing  for 
262 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

security,  after  months  of  chaotic  confusion,  is 
likely  to  reach  a  degree  of  savage  exasperation  in 
the  bosom  of  the  honest  bourgeois. 

So  Thomas  Paine,  who  preserved  his  normal 
serenity,  found  that  he  had  to  pass  once  more 
from  the  right  to  the  left.  A  while  ago,  an  "aris- 
tocrat" in  the  eyes  of  the  Terrorists,  he  is  now 
a  democrat  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Thermi- 
dorians.  But  it  was  not  because  he  really  oscil- 
lated. It  was  his  opinion  that  principles  which 
could  be  influenced  by  circumstances  had  no  gen- 
uine foundation  in  the  heart.  He  pardoned 
everybody.  Why  not?  None  of  the  people  had 
done  him  wrong.  The  experience  he  had  under- 
gone had  not  in  the  slightest  degree  shaken  his 
confidence  in  the  people.  It  was  not,  he  believed, 
the  people  that  had  imprisoned  and  persecuted 
him,  but  a  faction  that  had  usurped  the  popular 
power.  The  people  is,  and  not  the  less  on  that 
account,  the  legitimate  sovereign,  the  only  sover- 
eign that  has  the  right  to  establish  a  government 
by  the  election  of  representatives,  who  are  dele- 
gated, not  to  issue  decrees  suggested  by  passing 
whims,  but  to  enact  general  and  durable  laws. 

If  the  Constitution  had  been  obeyed,  these  acts 
of  arbitrary  power  which  now  revolted  everyone 
would  have  been  rendered  impossible.     What 

263 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

constitution?  That  of  Condorcet  or  that  of  He- 
rault  ?  It  did  not  make  any  difference,  provided 
that  it  was  a  written,  printed  constitution,  con- 
taining a  certain  number  of  articles,  a  constitu- 
tion which  each  citizen  could  carry  in  his  pocket. 
Despotism  arises  only  when  people  place  them- 
selves at  the  mercy  of  events.  The  evil  is  that 
the  republic  has  no  stable  defensive  organization, 
that  liberty  is  not  regulated.  This  thesis  was  de- 
veloped with  great  force  by  Paine  in  his  disser- 
tations on  the  "First  Principles  of  Government," 
published  in  July,  1795,  just  when  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Year  III  was  the  subject  of  deliber- 
ation. It  was  a  liberal  constitution  enough,  but 
it  was  never  popular.  It  was  a  prudent  return 
to  the  vote  by  qualification,  to  the  regime  of  the 
middle  classes. 

Because  the  poor  have  brandished  their  pikes 
during  the  past  riotous  days,  the  poor  are  to  be 
deprived  of  the  right  of  voting.  A  strange 
but  yet  natural  mode  of  reasoning!  Boissy  ex- 
pounds it  in  explicit  terms:  "We  ought  to  be 
governed  by  the  best.  The  best  are  the  best 
educated  and  those  most  interested  in  the  main- 
tenance of  the  laws.  Now,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions, you  will  find  such  persons  only  amongst 
those  who  possess  property.  A  country  gov- 
264   , 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

erned  by  men  of  property  is  in  the  social  order." 
It  was,  in  all  its  nakedness,  the  society  of  classes 
against  which  Paine  had  always  protested.  He 
could  not  permit  such  a  theory  to  be  advanced 
without  raising  his  voice  against  it.  Although 
enfeebled  by  sickness,  he  forced  himself  to  come 
to  the  Convention  (seventh  of  July,  1795).  He 
remained  standing  in  the  tribune  while  the  sec- 
retary read  a  translation  of  his  discourse.  After 
apologizing  for  his  long,  involuntary  absence,  he 
affirmed  the  constancy  of  his  republicanism,  and 
recalled  the  initial  meaning  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution as  indicated  by  the  Declaration  of  Rights. 
Now,  the  proposed  constitution  was  com- 
pletely out  of  harmony  with  the  latter;  by  with- 
drawing universal  suffrage  from  the  people,  it 
showed  that  it  was  not  truly  republican.  To  in- 
troduce political  right  as  an  attribute  of  property 
was  to  strike  with  inertia  a  system  of  government 
whose  very  essence  was  life  and  movement.  Im- 
portant words  these,  but  they  were  not  listened  to. 
Paine  seemed  not  to  understand  the  situation. 
The  Constitution  was  a  confiteor  that  the  Con- 
vention knew  itself  to  be  unpopular,  that  it  was 
about  to  disappear,  and  that  its  only  chance  of 
returning  to  power  was  to  conciliate  the  respect- 
able classes.  The  speech  of  Paine  was  heard 
i-to  265 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

with  deference,  but  found  no  echo;  the  French 
translation  was  not  even  published. 

It  was  the  last  time  that  the  champion  of  the 
Republic  was  to  intervene  in  the  affairs  of  France. 
The  Convention  was  dissolved  on  the  twenty-sixth 
of  October,  1795,  and  Thomas  Paine  became  a 
private  citizen. 

He  continued  to  vegetate  in  Paris  under  the 
Directory,  surrounded  by  a  few  faithful  disci- 
ples and  forgotten  by  the  public.  Yet  he  still 
tried  to  contribute,  for  the  sake  of  a  distant  fu- 
ture, to  the  progress  of  republican  morals  and 
republican  religion,  the  want  of  which  had  just 
made  the  Revolution  a  failure.  He  had  a  French 
translation  published  of  the  "Age  of  Reason," 
the  book  in  which  the  modern  conscience  first 
dared,  without  indirection  and  without  sarcasm, 
to  set  itself  up  as  the  judge  of  Christian  tradi- 
tions, and  laid  the  basis  of  a  purified  religion, 
reduced  to  the  only  beliefs  which  appeared  neces- 
sary as  a  foundation  of  fraternity  among  men. 

Naturally  he  was  one  of  the  first  adherents, 
if  he  was  not  the  instigator,  of  Theophilanthro- 
py.  This  new  religion,  in  fact,  owed  its  origin 
to  England.  David  Williams,  that  friend  of 
Paine  who  had  presented  him  to  Franklin,  had 
invented  a  Liturgy  founded  on  the  universal 
266 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

principles  of  reason  and  morality,  and  he  had 
gathered  together  a  number  of  free-thinkers  in  a 
chapel  in  London,  in  order  that  they  might 
strengthen  one  another  by  their  mutual  sympathy. 
The  Theophilanthropists  simply  tried  to  natural- 
ize this  institution  in  France.  They  succeeded 
at  first.  Certain  fathers  of  families,  anxious  that 
their  children  should  have  a  moral  training;  cer- 
tain philosophers  who,  although  disciples  of  rea- 
son, required  an  outlet  for  their  spiritual  emo- 
tions, such  as  Thomas  Paine,  Gregoire,  Marie 
Joseph  Chenier,  Bernardin  Saint-Pierre,  became 
naturally  and  eagerly  its  adherents. 

For  those  who  did  not  incline  to  any  particu- 
lar form  of  worship,  the  Theophilanthropist 
meetings  offered  a  substitute ;  for  the  faithful  of 
some  other  church  it  was  a  help  to  listen  to  exhor- 
tations which  urged  them  to  make  their  conduct 
conform  to  their  faith.  All  religious  and  politi- 
cal polemics  were  forbidden,  as  well  as  all  at- 
tempts at  proselytism.  The  simple  influence  of 
a  pure  and  practical  system  of  morals  was  of  it- 
self calculated  to  rally  free  spirits  to  this  free 
church.  The  first  meeting,  on  the  sixteenth  of 
January,  1797,  opened  with  a  lay  homily  from 
Thomas  Paine  on  the  existence  of  God.  After  a 
demonstration  analogous  to  that  of  the  Vicaire 

267 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Savoyard,  the  orator  went  on  to  insist  on  the  peril 
of  plunging  into  mysticism  and  on  the  necessity 
of  keeping  the  mind  in  a  condition  of  rational  and 
scientific  lucidity.  But  he  did  not  remain  long 
with  the  Theophilanthropists.  The  latter,  fear- 
ing to  wound  the  sympathies  of  anyone,  avoided 
stating  categorically  what  they  did  not  believe. 
This  reticence  by  no  means  suited  the  taste  of 
Thomas  Paine,  who  was  always  frank  and  out- 
spoken. 

Nevertheless  the  followers  of  this  religion 
were  gaining  some  footing,  and  eighteen  churches 
were  abandoned  to  them.  They  even  installed 
themselves  in  Notre  Dame  for  a  time.  Then 
came  the  Concordat,  and  the  Theophilanthropists, 
with  other  non-conformists,  had  to  vanish  into 
obscurity. 

When  the  priests  returned  openly  and  the 
peals  of  the  bells  again  rang  out  in  triumph,  the 
temper  of  Thomas  Paine  was  not  at  all  in  tune 
with  the  change.  In  his  passing  freak  of  ill- 
humor,  he  even  wrote  to  Camille  Jordan,  who  was 
in  favor  of  toleration,  a  letter  of  protest.  The 
kind  of  worship  that  commended  itself  to  Paine 
was  of  the  silent,  meditative  order:  no  bells  or 
organs  or  trumpets  for  him!  No  manifestations 
that  are  likely  to  arouse  hostility,  either.  Have 
268 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

not  recent  experiences  taught  us  to  distrust 
whatever  tends  to  overexcite  the  sensitive  element 
in  man's  nature?  The  influence  which  is  gained 
over  him  by  such  methods  is  neither  legitimate  nor 
prudent :  he  is  led  like  a  somnambulist,  it  may  be 
to  misery,  it  may  be  to  crime.  He  must  be  lib- 
erated from  such  a  yoke ;  every  religion  which  has 
any  end  in  view  except  the  happiness  of  human- 
ity is  a  public  peril,  etc. 

But  apparently  the  First  Consul  had  not  the 
least  intention  of  liberating  his  fellow-citizens. 

Paine  had  at  first  believed  in  Bonaparte. 
The  latter,  on  his  return  from  Italy,  had  caressed 
and  cajoled  him  with  the  skill  of  which  he  alone 
had  the  secret.  What  if  this  Bonaparte  was  pre- 
destined to  destroy  all  antiquated  despotisms? 
Perhaps  even  William  Pitt  would  find  his  match 
in  him!  For  it  was  just  the  moment  when  ru- 
mors were  abroad  that  the  conqueror  of  Italy 
was  meditating  a  descent  on  England.  At  this 
news  the  old  English  radical  fairly  quivered  with 
hope :  why  should  a  general  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution land  in  Britain  if  not  to  emancipate  the 
English  people,  and  at  last  bring  to  them  that 
long-desired  republic  which  could  alone  procure 
peace? 

The  abandonment  of  this  fine  plan  for  the 

269 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

liberation  of  England  and  the  departure  of  Bo- 
naparte for  Egypt  cruelly  deceived  Thomas 
Paine.  But  if  the  departure  of  the  First  Consul 
was  a  disappointment,  how  much  more  so  was  his 
return!  After  the  eighteenth  Brumaire,  France 
no  longer  offered  any  field  of  activity  to  a  coun- 
selor of  the  people,  for  the  people  no  longer  in- 
fluenced events.  They  were  politely  dispensed 
from  the  trouble  of  watching  over  their  own  in- 
terests. And,  should  any  of  them  exhibit  a  ten- 
dency to  meddle  with  public  affairs  notwithstand- 
ing, he  encountered  a  diligent  police  and  a  deter- 
mined censorship  that  quickly  brought  him  to 
his  senses.  "The  love  of  order,"  has  become,  ac- 
cording to  the  formula  of  Fouche,  "the  first  of 
public  virtues."  Woe  to  the  man  who  shows 
himself  devoid  of  it!  And  so  Nicholas  de  Bonne- 
ville, Paine's  host  and  good  friend,  is  locked  up  in 
prison  and  his  journal,  Le  Bien  Informe,  is  sus- 
pended, because  he  has  compared  Bonaparte  to 
Cromwell.  The  Terror  has  apparently  come  to 
life  again,  not  more  cruel,  but  chronic,  regular, 
and  with  every  chance  of  surviving. 

It  was  the  rebound  of  the  rock  of  Sisyphus. 
This  time  Thomas  Paine  gave  it  up.     All  his 
dreams  had  been  vanquished,  and  he  was  begin- 
ning to  feel  the  weight  of  his  advanced  years — 
270 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

he  was  near  seventy.  So  he  wanted  rest,  wanted 
a  holiday,  the  society  of  dumb  nature.  A  long- 
ing to  till  the  land,  to  live  on  his  farm  at  New 
Rochelle,  took  hold  of  him,  and  he  bade  a  last 
farewell  to  the  feverish  agitations  of  unhappy 
Europe. 

He  embarked  at  Havre  on  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember, 1802,  and,  on  the  thirtieth  of  October, 
after  an  absence  of  fifteen  years,  years  filled  with 
strife  and  trouble,  he  again  saw  the  shores  of 
America. 

The  United  States,  after  its  pacification, 
seemed  a  good  country  to  die  in.  Having  no 
longer  any  enemies,  the  American  people,  at  their 
ease  on  the  wide  continent,  were  safe  from  that 
patriotic  fever  which  rendered  the  old  nations  of 
Europe  unfit  for  fraternal  government.  Ah, 
yes,  but  another  fever  was  agitating  them,  re- 
ligious zeal.  "The  enemy"  here  was  not  the  man 
on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  but  Satan  himself. 
The  sacred  fetich  was  no  longer  the  flag,  the 
cockade;  it  was  the  Bible.  The  Bible  was  still 
considered  inviolable  among  this  primitive  people 
to  whom  Voltaire  was  unknown.  Now  Thomas 
Paine  had  spoken  in  a  very  free  and  easy  man- 
ner of  the  Bible,  and  he  was  soon  made  to  feel  the 
result. 

271 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Doubtless,  in  gratitude  for  old  services, 
Common  Sense  was  amicably  received  by  Jef- 
ferson, the  successor  of  Washington  in  the  Pres- 
idency of  the  United  States.  He  was  permitted 
to  enter  into  possession  of  his  lands,  and  make  a 
home  for  himself.  But  the  "Age  of  Reason"  had 
been  dedicated  to  the  people  of  America,  and 
had  reached  its  address.  And  the  people  of 
America  left  no  one  in  doubt  as  to  the  nature  of 
their  reply:  the  reprobation  of  the  clergy  and  of 
all  the  simple  hearts  in  the  community  fell  on  the 
head  of  the  daring  innovator.  Nor  were  the 
Quakers  less  indignant  with  their  former  core- 
ligionist. The  number  of  those  who  had  read  the 
book  was  very  restricted;  the  number  of  those 
who  would  not  for  the  world  have  consented  to 
read  it,  and  who  anathematized  it  all  the  same, 
was  immense.  The  people  in  Paine's  neighbor- 
hood expected  every  day  to  see  the  devil  spring 
down  through  the  chimney  of  his  cottage  and 
bear  away  the  soul  of  his  servant.  A  cab-driver, 
who  was  also  blest  with  saving  faith,  refused  to 
drive  him,  because  he  knew  if  he  did  so,  a  thun- 
derbolt would  surely  fall  from  heaven  and  shat- 
ter his  cab  to  pieces. 

The  archaic  sentiment  known  as  the  impreca- 
tion of  the  impure  assumed  at  this  period  the 
272 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

form  of  a  political  proscription.  For  to  interdict 
the  communion  of  saints  to  a  person  who  had,  of 
his  own  free  will,  withdrawn  from  it  long  before, 
to  devote  to  the  infernal  gods  a  man  who  did  not 
believe  in  them,  was  like  brandishing  a  wooden 
sword  at  an  enemy.  But  to  refuse  to  accept  the 
vote  he  had  just  deposited  in  the  urn  under  the 
pretext,  invented  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  that 
the  emancipator  of  America  was  not  regularly 
an  American  citizen — that,  indeed,  was  to  attack 
him  in  a  weak  point,  for  it  was  to  attack  the 
rights  to  which  he  clung  with  all  his  energy,  it 
was  to  make  a  mockery  of  the  very  principles 
which  his  enemies  knew  to  be  his  most  sacred 
possession.  Yet  this  the  political  adversaries  of 
Paine  did  at  New  Rochelle  in  1806,  for  they  had 
the  well-grounded  persuasion  that  the  compact 
majority  of  the  people  would  sustain  this  out- 
lawry of  the  friend  and  ally  of  Satan. 

Yet,  unawed  by  excommunication  and  anath- 
ema, and  rather  amused  at  the  attempts  of 
some  worthy  clergymen  to  convert  him,  Paine 
lived  on  tranquilly  until  1809.  He  died,  with 
perfect  calmness  and  perfect  resignation,  on  the 
ninth  of  June,  and  not  a  single  clap  of  thunder 
was  heard,  and  not  a  single  spark  of  flame  shot 

273 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

upwards  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth  on  the 
occasion. 

France,  and  even  America  herself,  both  be- 
ing at  that  time,  and  for  a  considerable  time 
afterwards,  plunged  in  barbarism,  forgot  the  in- 
ventor of  the  Republic,  whose  hour  had  not  yet 
come. 


274 


rikif.OHT  HHT 


7.  faISajfooVl 


the  bowels  of  the  earth  on  the 

even  America  herself,  both  be- 

hat  time,  and  for  a  considerable  time 

plunged  in  barbarism,  forgot  the  in- 

f  the  Republic,  whose  hour  had  not  yet 

ie. 


THE  THOMAS  PAINE  FARM 

Photogravure  from  am  Original  Photograph  of  the  home 
of  Thomas  Paine  at  Xexc  Rochelle,  N.Y. 


PAINE  IN  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLU- 
TION 

By  Leslie  Stephen 

WHAT  was  the  real  value  and  significance 
of  Paine's  work?  Paine,  of  course, 
more  than  anyone  else,  represents  for  English- 
men the  principles  of  1789 ;  and  in  particular  the 
connection  of  those  principles  with  the  War  of 
Independence  in  America.  What,  then,  were 
his  antecedents  and  his  achievements? 

Paine,  in  the  first  place,  was  the  son  of  a  poor 
Quaker  in  Thetford.  The  Quaker  spirit  un- 
doubtedly had  much  to  do  with  his  development. 
He  was,  like  Franklin,  a  Quaker  minus  the 
orthodox  creed,  as  in  later  years  Carlyle  was  a 
Calvinist  who  had  dropped  the  dogma.  With 
the  mysticism,  indeed,  which  distinguished  the 
earlier  members  of  the  sect,  Paine  had  no  sym- 
pathy. It  was  replaced  in  him  as  in  Franklin 
by  the  metaphysical  Deism  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century.     But  he  certainly  imbibed  the  practical 

sentiment  which  made  Quakers  take  so  honorable 

1 
and  conspicuous  a  part  in  all  the  philanthropic 

movements  of  his  time,  and  shared  their  aversion 

to  all  forms  and  ecclesiastical  institutions. 

275 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

The  Quaker  religion,  he  declared  in  the  "Age 
of  Reason,"  was  that  which  approached  most 
nearly  to  true  Deism.  A  contempt  for  the 
pomps  and  vanities  of  the  world,  an  enthusiasm 
for  the  brotherhood  of  mankind,  and  a  reverence 
for  the  rights  of  individual  consciences,  may  be 
expressed  in  terms  of  George  Fox  as  of  Thomas 
Paine.  For  the  "inner  light"  we  have  only  to 
substitute  a  metaphysical  dogmatism,  less  emo- 
tional but  equally  imperative. 

Paine,  however,  from  his  youth  must  have 
hung  very  lightly  to  any  religious  sect.  There 
are  vague  indications  that  he  preached,  but  his 
sermons,  if  any,  are  with  the  snows  of  last  year. 
Nor  is  there  the  least  proof  that  he  was  specially 
affected  by  the  sight  of  the  evils  of  the  day.  A 
lad  of  nine  years  old  was  probably  more  pleased 
by  the  drums  of  the  regiments  returning  from 
the  Highlands — if,  indeed,  any  of  them  passed 
through  Thetford — than  shocked  by  the  blood- 
stained uniforms  of  the  instruments  of  Cumber- 
land's vengeance. 

Certainly  at  the  age  of  eighteen  or  nineteen 
he  became  for  a  short  time  a  privateersman,  which 
would  hardly  be  the  choice  of  a  premature 
philanthropist.  His  career  as  a  staymaker  and 
afterwards  as  an  exciseman  is  naturally  obscure. 
276 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

We  can  see  dimly  by  that  he  had  ambitions  and 
that  he  neglected  his  business.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  jovial  political  club  at  Lewes,  wrote 
songs  and  comic  poems,  and  argued  with  great 
vivacity  on  behalf  (it  seems)  of  Wilkes  and 
liberty. 

English  radicalism  was  slowly  stirring  to  life 
after  the  profound  calm  of  the  middle  of  the 
century.  Paine,  we  may  guess,  read  the  English 
translations  of  Rousseau's  "Social  Contract"  and 
discourse  on  the  "Inequality  of  Mankind,"  which 
were  the  prophetic  utterances  of  the  new-born 
spirit.  If  he  did  not  read  them  he  learned  their 
formulae. 

He  became  conspicuous  enough  among  his 
fellows  to  be  put  forward  as  their  spokesman  in 
an  agitation  for  an  increase  of  salaries.  The 
position  was  dangerous,  for  of  all  classes  of  men, 
excisemen  were  the  last  who  could  count  upon 
popular  sympathy,  and  a  request  for  more 
money  rarely  conciliates  superiors.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  Paine  soon  found  himself  an  excise- 
man out  of  place.  He  had  one  resource. 
Paine's  intellectual  temper  was  that  of  a  mathe- 
matician, and  he  had  at  some  period  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  science.  He  got  some  teaching 
from  two  self-educated  men,  Benjamin  Martin 

277 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

and  the  well-known  astronomer,  Thomas  Fergu- 
son, who  both  gave  lectures  in  London. 

It  was  possibly  through  them  that  he  became 
known  to  Franklin,  already  famous  for  having 
snatched  the  lightning  from  heaven,  and  soon  to 
snatch  the  scepter  from  kings.  Armed  with  a 
letter  of  introduction  from  Franklin,  Paine 
sailed  to  Philadelphia  toward  the  end  of  1774, 
intending  to  set  up  a  school.  He  became  editor 
of  a  magazine  at  the  humble  salary  of  £50  a 
year;  but  within  a  few  months  found  much 
livelier  occupation. 

When  Paine  reached  America  a  Congress  was 
already  sitting  in  Philadelphia.  The  skirmish  at 
Lexington  (nineteenth  April,  1775)  and  the 
Battle  of  Bunker  Hill  (seventeenth  June)  were 
followed  by  the  choice  of  Washington  to  be 
Commander-in-chief  of  the  provincial  armies. 
Paine  during  the  autumn  wrote  his  "Common 
Sense,"  which  appeared  in  January,  1776,  and 
made  him  famous  at  a  blow.  In  three  months 
120,000  copies  were  sold,  and  it  became  the 
recognized  manifesto  of  the  Revolutionary  party ; 
an  exciseman  with  such  training  only  as  was  to 
be  had  at  Thetford  had  become  the  spokesman 
of  a  nation  in  which  hardly  a  year  before  he  had 
been  almost  a  foreigner.  What  was  the  secret 
278 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

of  his  success?  In  the  first  place,  it  was  that 
Paine  was  endowed  with  the  most  valuable  in- 
stinct that  a  journalist  can  possess. 

Americans  had  up  to  the  last  moment  been 
declaring  that  they  had  no  wish  for  separation. 
Franklin  asserted  that  he  had  heard  no  such 
desire  expressed  by  "any  person,  drunk  or 
sober."  Paine  says  much  the  same  elsewhere, 
but  in  the  pamphlet  he  also  says  that  he  never 
met  a  man  in  England  or  America  who  did  not 
expect  that  separation  would  come  sooner  or 
later. 

A  newspaper,  it  is  said,  has  thriven  by  saying 
a  little  better  what  everybody  is  already  saying. 
It  is  a  still  greater  triumph  to  say  what  every- 
body is  going  to  say  to-morrow,  but  does  not 
quite  dare  to  say  to-day. 

A  quaint  illustration  of  the  obvious  principle 
occurs  in  Coleridge's  "Literary  Remains."  When 
reading  Leighton,  he  says,  he  seems  to  be  "only 
thinking  his  own  thoughts  over  again."  On  the 
next  page  he  expresses  the  same  opinion  by  say- 
ing that  he  almost  believes  Leighton  to  have  been 
actually  an  inspired  writer.  Nothing  is  so  im- 
pressive as  revelation  of  our  own  thoughts. 

When  armed  resistance  had  actually  begun, 
when  the  colonists  had   formed   a  league   and 

279 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

chosen  a  commander-in-chief,  it  must,  one  would 
suppose,  have  been  hard  for  any  man  to  keep  up 
the  pretense  of  disavowing  a  wish  for  independ- 
ence. It  could  be  merely  a  way  of  throwing  the 
responsibility  upon  the  mother  country;  and  the 
time  for  such  special  pleading  passed  with  the 
first  outbreak  of  war.  What  was  needed  then 
was  a  clear,  distinctive  unveiling  of  the  hitherto 
masked  conviction. 

Paine,  in  a  literary  sense,  was  the  man  who 
"belled  the  cat."  He  had  an  audience  ready  to 
hail  him  as  a  prophet  because  he  was  an  echo,  not 
of  their  words,  but  of  their  thoughts.  But  he  also 
put  the  case  with  a  clearness  and  vigor  which  is 
the  more  remarkable  from  his  entire  want  of 
literary  experience.  His  method  is  character- 
istic. There  is  less  than  one  might  expect  of 
such  rhetoric  as  is  called  inflammatory.  A  native 
American  would  probably  have  dwelt  more  upon 
specific  grievances,  but  Paine  had  no  special  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  such  things. 

He  takes  them  for  granted  rather  than 
expatiates  upon  them.  He  speaks  like  a  man 
insisting  upon  an  absolutely  demonstrable  scien- 
tific truth.  The  thesis  which  he  had  to  establish 
is  simply,  "It  is  time  to  part";  and  the  proof  is 
drawn  from  the  obvious  designs  of  Providence  as 
280 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

manifested  in  geography.  It  is  absurd  to  sup- 
pose that  a  continent  can  be  perpetually  governed 
by  an  island.  Nature  does  not  make  a  satellite 
bigger  than  its  primary  planet. 

When  the  quarrel  has  once  broken  out,  com- 
promise becomes  obviously  absurd.  Such  differ- 
ences cannot  be  patched  up  by  any  settlement. 
To  come  to  terms  for  the  moment  could  only  be 
to  leave  the  quarrel  to  the  next  generation. 
England  is  small,  America  a  vast  continent; 
therefore  English  rule  of  America  is  in  a  position 
of  unstable  equilibrium.  Once  upset  it,  and  you 
can  never  again  balance  the  pyramid  on  its  apex. 
That  is  the  substance  of  an  argument  which 
undoubtedly  deserves,  too,  the  title  of  "Common 
Sense."  It  rests  upon  broad,  undeniable  facts 
and  is,  of  course,  backed  up  by  sufficient  refer- 
ence to  the  abominations  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. But  Paine  also  provides  his  argument  with 
certain  prolegomena  which  supersede  any  refer- 
ence to  expediency.  Sir  Henry  Maine  has 
traced  the  social  contract  theory  from  its  sources 
in  Roman  jurisprudence  to  its  transfiguration  by 
Rousseau. 

Rousseau,  he  says,  transmitted  it  to  Jefferson. 
It  appears,  therefore,  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, upon  which  Paine  had,  perhaps,  some 
1-21  281 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

influence.  He  had  expounded  it  fully  in  "Com- 
mon Sense."  Starting  from  the  natural  equality 
of  man  and  the  regular  hypothesis  of  a  small  body 
of  men  meeting  "in  some  sequested  part  of  the 
earth,"  and  making  a  bargain  as  to  their  rights, 
we  get  at  once  a  clean-cut  theory  of  government 
and  a  demonstration  of  the  gross  absurdity  of 
kings  and  aristocrats.  It  is  plainly  impossible 
to  prove  the  value  of  the  British  Constitution  by 
a  priori  reasoning. 

To  Paine,  therefore,  the  American  Revolu- 
tion was  already  the  promulgation  of  the  "rights 
of  man"  in  the  most  absolute  form.  The  colo- 
nies revolted,  according  to  him,  not  because 
charters  had  been  infringed  or  specific  injuries 
inflicted  upon  merchants;  but  in  virtue  of  prin- 
ciples as  true  as  the  propositions  of  Euclid,  and 
applicable  not  only  to  Englishmen  or  Americans, 
but  to  man  as  man. 

So  long  as  all  patriots  were  agreed  to  turn 
out  George  III,  it  mattered  little  what  meta- 
physical principles  they  chose  to  postulate  as  the 
ground  of  their  claims;  whether  they  fought  in 
the  name  of  the  great  charter  or  of  the  rights 
of  man.  The  more  sweeping  the  principle  an- 
nounced the  more  effective  the  war-cry. 

Paine's  doctrine  covered  claims  enough,  and 
282 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

if  it  covered  rather  too  many,  that  was  for  the 
moment  unimportant.  He  could  speak  as  if  his 
enemies  were  not  only  wanting  in  prudence  but 
denying  the  plainest  dictates  of  pure  reason. 

Paine,  it  must  be  added,  acted  in  the  spirit 
of  his  doctrines  through  the  war.  At  intervals 
he  published  the  series  of  pamphlets  called, 
collectively,  the  "Crisis,"  which,  though  of 
such  various  degrees  of  merit,  show  the  same 
characteristic  quality. 

If  overweening  confidence  in  one's  opinions  is 
a  doubtful  merit  in  a  philosopher,  it  is  undoubt- 
edly valuable  in  the  supporter  of  a  precarious 
enterprise.  "These  are  the  times  that  try  men's 
souls"  was  the  opening — it  became  proverbial  of 
the  most  famous  of  these  productions. 

It  was  written  at  a  time  when  the  cause  was 
apparently  in  great  danger,  and  it  was  followed 
by  an  unexpected  success.  Washington,  it  is 
said,  had  the  paper  distributed  to  be  read 
throughout  his  army,  and  in  that  sign  they  con- 
quered. The  secret  of  Paine's  power  is  given  in 
a  phrase  from  the  same  paper.  "My  own  line 
of  reasoning  is  to  myself  as  straight  and  clear  as 
a  ray  of  light." 

Paine  himself  took  part  in  active  service  until 
he  was  appointed  secretary  to  a  committee  of 

283 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

Congress;  and  his  words  have  not  unfrequently 
the  genuine  ring  as  of  one  speaking  actually 
under  fire.  The  unanimous  opinion  of  his  com- 
panions, and  especially  Washington's  declara- 
tions, leave  no  doubt  that  they  did  more  than  any 
other  pamphlets  to  rouse  the  American  spirit. 
Paine,  with  the  calm  self-complacency  pardon- 
able, perhaps,  in  a  man  who  had  thus  suddenly 
sprung  into  fame,  held  in  later  years  that  his  own 
pen  had  done  as  much  service  as  Washington's 
sword.  He  might  fairly  claim  whatever  credit 
belongs  to  the  man  who  throws  himself  unflinch- 
ingly into  the  defense  of  a  great  cause.  He  had 
got  into  certain  difficulties  in  his  official  character 
which  showed  at  worst  that  a  desire  to  expose  a 
dishonest  transaction  had  led  him  to  disregard 
diplomatic  proprieties. 

He  had  blurted  out  a  statement  about  French 
help  to  the  colonies  previous  to  the  declaration 
of  war,  which  had  to  be  disavowed,  and  which 
forced  him  to  resign  his  post.  But  he  had  staked 
his  fortunes  unreservedly  on  the  issue  of  the  war 
and  deserved  reward  the  more  that  he  had  gained 
nothing  by  his  pamphlets. 

He  had  given  up  the  copyright  of  his  publi- 
cations to  increase  their  circulation;  and  the 
reward  which  he  ultimately  received  was  certainly 
284 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

not  extravagant.  New  York  generously  pre- 
sented him  with  an  estate  which  it  took  from  a 
Tory,  and  Pennsylvania  gave  him  £500. 

When  the  plain  issue  of  the  war  was  finally 
settled,  Paine's  occupation  was  gone.  Work 
had  to  be  done  in  which  mathematical  demonstra- 
tions of  the  rights  of  man  were  irrelevant.  To 
form  the  separate  colonies  into  a  nation,  to  recon- 
cile their  jealousies  and  make  such  compromises 
as  would  practically  work,  was  a  task  for  men  of 
very  different  qualities.  The  Federalist,  now 
the  most  famous  literary  record  of  the  guiding 
principles  of  that  achievement,  belongs  to 
another  order  of  thought.  The  writers  follow 
the  lead  of  Montesquieu  instead  of  Rousseau; 
and  any  comparison  with  Paine's  work  would  be 
absurd.     His  merit  is  to  have  raised  a  war-cry. 

jfc  jfe  &  3£  jjg  .& 

The  main  secret  of  Paine's  strength  is,  I 
think,  the  same  throughout.  Like  other  men 
who  have  made  a  remarkable  success,  he  com- 
bined qualities  not  often  found  together.  He 
was  an  idealist,  endowed  with  a  strong  view  of 
common  sense.  He  was  by  nature  a  man  of 
science,  who  imagines  the  method  of  Euclid  to  be 
applicable  to  all  topics  of  speculation,  and  so 
falls  in  love  with  a  good  mathematical  axiom  that 

285 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

he  despises  the  trifling  difficulty  of  applying  it 
to  concrete  facts.  The  facts  have  to  bend  or 
be  ignored.  The  type  is  common  enough  in  the 
French  theorists  of  the  revolutionary  movement, 
but  there  is  something  generally  uncongenial 
about  it  to  our  rougher  English  minds.  We 
rather  hate  symmetry,  and  our  suspicions  are 
roused  by  any  appearance  of  logic. 


286 


THOMAS  PAINE  * 

By  Robert  G.  Ingersoll 

With  His  Name  Left  Out,  the  History  of 
Liberty  Cannot  be  Written 

r  I  ^  O    speak    the   praises    of   the    brave    and 
-*-    thoughtful  dead,  is  to  me  a  labor  of  grati- 
tude and  love. 

Through  all  the  centuries  gone,  the  mind  of 
man  has  been  beleagured  by  the  mailed  hosts  of 
superstition.  Slowly  and  painfully  has  ad- 
vanced the  army  of  deliverance.  Hated  by  those 
they  wished  to  rescue,  despised  by  those  they 
were  dying  to  save,  these  grand  soldiers,  these 
immortal  deliverers,  have  fought  without  thanks, 
labored  without  applause,  suffered  without  pity, 
and  they  have  died  execrated  and  abhorred.  For 
the  good  of  mankind  they  accepted  isolation, 
poverty,  and  calumny.  They  gave  up  all,  sacri- 
ficed all,  lost  all  but  truth  and  self-respect. 

One  of  the  bravest  soldiers  in  this  army  was 
Thomas  Paine;  and  for  one,  I  feel  indebted  to 
him  for  the  liberty  we  are  enjoying  this  da)'. 
Born  among  the  poor,  where  children  are  bur- 

*  From  an  oration  delivered  at  Fairburg,  111.,  January  30, 
1871,  and  again  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  New  York  City,  May 
14,  1899.— Ed 

287 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

dens;  in  a  country  where  real  liberty  was  un- 
known ;  where  the  privileges  of  class  were  guard- 
ed with  infinite  jealousy,  and  the  rights  of  the 
individual  trampled  beneath  the  feet  of  priests 
and  nobles;  where  to  advocate  justice  was  trea- 
son; where  intellectual  freedom  was  infidelity,  it 
is  wonderful  that  the  idea  of  true  liberty  ever 
entered  his  brain. 

Poverty  was  his  mother — Necessity  his  master. 

He  had  more  brains  than  books;  more  sense 
than  education;  more  courage  than  politeness; 
more  strength  than  polish.  He  had  no  venera- 
tion for  old  mistakes — no  admiration  for  ancient 
lies.  He  loved  the  truth  for  the  truth's  sake,  and 
for  man's  sake.  He  saw  oppression  on  every 
hand;  injustice  everywhere;  hypocrisy  at  the 
altar,  venality  on  the  bench,  tyranny  on  the 
throne;  and  with  a  splendid  courage  he  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  weak  against  the  strong — of  the 
enslaved  many  against  the  titled  few. 

In  England  he  was  nothing.  He  belonged 
to  the  lower  classes.  There  was  no  avenue  open 
for  him.  The  people  hugged  their  chains,  and 
the  whole  power  of  the  Government  was  ready 
to  crush  any  man  who  endeavored  to  strike  a  blow 
for  the  right. 
288 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

At  the  age  of  thirty-seven,  Thomas  Paine 
left  England  for  America,  with  the  high  hope 
of  being  instrumental  in  the  establishment  of  a 
free  government.  In  his  own  country  he  could 
accomplish  nothing.  Those  two  vultures — 
Church  and  State — were  ready  to  tear  in  pieces 
and  devour  the  heart  of  anyone  who  might  deny 
their  divine  right  to  enslave  the  world. 

Upon  his  arrival  in  this  country,  he  found 
himself  possessed  of  a  letter  of  introduction, 
signed  by  another  infidel,  the  illustrious  Frank- 
lin. This,  and  his  native  genius,  constituted  his 
entire  capital;  and  he  needed  no  more.  He 
found  the  colonies  clamoring  for  justice;  whining 
about  their  grievances;  upon  their  knees  at  the 
foot  of  the  throne,  imploring  that  mixture  of 
idiocy  and  insanity,  George  the  III  by  the  grace 
of  God,  for  a  restoration  of  their  ancient  privi- 
leges. They  were  not  endeavoring  to  become 
free  men,  but  were  trying  to  soften  the  heart  of 
their  master.  They  were  perfectly  willing  to 
make  brick  if  Pharaoh  would  furnish  the  straw. 
The  colonists  wished  for,  hoped  for,  and  prayed 
for  reconciliation.  They  did  not  dream  of  in- 
dependence. 

Paine  gave  to  the  world  his  "Common  Sense." 
It  was  the  first  argument  for  separation,  the  first 

289 


WRITINGS   OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

assault  upon  the  British  form  of  government,  the 
first  blow  for  a  republic,  and  it  aroused  our 
fathers  like  a  trumpet's  blast. 

He  was  the  first  to  perceive  the  destiny  of 
the  New  World. 

No  other  pamphlet  ever  accomplished  such 
wonderful  results.  It  was  filled  with  argument, 
reason,  persuasion,  and  unanswerable  logic.  It 
opened  a  new  world.  It  filled  the  present  with 
hope  and  the  future  with  honor.  Everywhere 
the  people  responded,  and  in  a  few  months  the 
Continental  Congress  declared  the  colonies  free 
and  independent  states. 

A  new  nation  was  born. 

It  is  simple  justice  to  say  that  Paine  did  more 
to  cause  the  Declaration  of  Independence  than 
any  other  man.  Neither  should  it  be  forgotten 
that  his  attacks  upon  Great  Britain  were  also 
attacks  upon  monarchy;  and  while  he  convinced 
the  people  that  the  colonies  ought  to  separate 
from  the  mother  country,  he  also  proved  to  them 
that  a  free  government  is  the  best  that  can  be 
instituted  among  men. 

In  my  judgment,  Thomas   Paine  was  the 

best  political  writer  that  ever  lived.     "What  he 

wrote  was  pure  nature,  and  his  soul  and  his  pen 

ever  went  together."     Ceremony,  pageantry,  and 

290 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

all  the  paraphernalia  of  power,  had  no  effect 
upon  him.  He  examined  into  the  why  and 
wherefore  of  things.  He  was  perfectly  radical 
in  his  mode  of  thought.  Nothing  short  of  the 
bed-rock  satisfied  him.  His  enthusiasm  for 
what  he  believed  to  be  right  knew  no  bounds. 
During  all  the  dark  scenes  of  the  Revolution, 
never  for  one  moment  did  he  despair.  Year 
after  year  his  brave  words  were  ringing  through 
the  land,  and  by  the  bivouac  fires  the  weary 
soldiers  read  the  inspiring  words  of  "Common 
Sense,"  filled  with  ideas  sharper  than  their 
swords,  and  consecrated  themselves  anew  to  the 
cause  of  Freedom. 

Paine  was  not  content  with  having  aroused 
the  spirit  of  independence,  but  he  gave  every 
energy  of  his  soul  to  keep  that  spirit  alive.  He 
was  with  the  army.  He  shared  its  defeats,  its 
dangers,  and  its  glory.  When  the  situation 
became  desperate,  when  gloom  settled  upon  all, 
he  gave  them  the  "Crisis."  It  was  a  cloud  by 
day  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  leading  the 
way  to  freedom,  honor,  and  glory.  He  shouted 
to  them,  "These  are  the  times  that  try  men's 
souls.  The  summer  soldier,  and  the  sunshine 
patriot,  will,  in  this  crisis,  shrink  from  the  ser- 
vice of  his  country;  but  he  that  stands  it  now 

291 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

deserves  the  love  and  thanks  of  man  and  wo- 
man." 

To  those  who  wished  to  put  the  war  off  to 
some  future  day  with  a  lofty  and  touching  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  he  said:  "Every  generous  pa- 
rent should  say,  'If  there  must  be  war  let  it 
be  in  my  day,  that  my  child  may  have  peace.' ' 
To  the  cry  that  Americans  were  rebels,  he  re- 
plied: "He  that  rebels  against  reason  is  a  real 
rebel;  but  he  that  in  defense  of  reason  rebels 
against  tyranny,  has  a  better  title  to  'Defender 
of  the  Faith'  than  George  III." 

Some  said  it  was  not  to  the  interest  of  the 
colonies  to  be  free.  Paine  answered  this  by  say- 
ing, "To  know  whether  it  be  the  interest  of  the 
continent  to  be  independent,  we  need  ask  only 
this  simple,  easy  question:  'Is  it  the  interest  of 
a  man  to  be  a  boy  all  his  life?'  "  He  found  many 
who  would  listen  to  nothing,  and  to  them  he  said, 
"That  to  argue  with  a  man  who  has  renounced 
his  reason  is  like  giving  medicine  to  the  dead." 
This  sentiment  ought  to  adorn  the  walls  of  every 
orthodox  church. 

There  is  a  world  of  political  wisdom  in  this: 

"England  lost  her  liberty  in  a  long  chain  of 

right   reasoning   from  wrong   principles";   and 

there    is    real    discrimination    in    saying,    "The 

292 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Greeks  and  Romans  were  strongly  possessed  of 
the  spirit  of  liberty,  but  not  the  principles,  for  at 
the  time  that  they  were  determined  not  to  be 
slaves  themselves,  they  employed  their  power  to 
enslave  the  rest  of  mankind." 

In  his  letter  to  the  British  people,  in  which 
he  tried  to  convince  them  that  war  was  not  to 
their  interest,  occurs  the  following  passage  brim- 
ful of  common  sense:  "War  never  can  be  the 
interest  of  a  trading  nation  any  more  than  quar- 
reling can  be  profitable  to  a  man  in  business. 
But  to  make  war  with  those  who  trade  with  us 
is  like  setting  a  bulldog  upon  a  customer  at  the 
shop  door." 

The  writings  of  Paine  fairly  glitter  with  sim- 
ple, compact,  logical  statements,  that  carry  con- 
viction to  the  dullest  and  most  prejudiced.  He 
had  the  happiest  possible  way  of  putting  the 
case;  in  asking  questions  in  such  a  way  that  they 
answer  themselves,  and  in  stating  his  premises  so 
clearly  that  the  deduction  could  not  be  avoided. 

Day  and  night  he  labored  for  America; 
month  after  month,  year  after  year,  he  gave 
himself  to  the  Great  Cause,  until  there  was  "a 
government  of  the  people  and  for  the  people," 
and  until  the  banner  of  the  stars  floated  over 

293 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

a  continent  redeemed,  and  consecrated  to  the 
happiness  of  mankind. 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  no  one  stood 
higher  in  America  than  Thomas  Paine.  The 
best,  the  wisest,  the  most  patriotic,  were  his 
friends  and  admirers;  and  had  he  been  thinking 
only  of  his  own  good  he  might  have  rested  from 
his  toils  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  in 
comfort  and  in  ease.  He  could  have  been  what 
the  world  is  pleased  to  call  "respectable."  He 
could  have  died  surrounded  by  clergymen,  war- 
riors and  statesmen.  At  his  death  there  would 
have  been  an  imposing  funeral,  miles  of  car- 
riages, civic  societies,  salvos  of  artillery,  a  nation 
in  mourning,  and,  above  all,  a  splendid  monu- 
ment covered  with  lies. 

He  chose  rather  to  benefit  mankind. 

At  that  time  the  seeds  sown  by  the  great 
infidels  were  beginning  to  bear  fruit  in  France. 
The  people  were  beginning  to  think. 

The  Eighteenth  Century  was  crowning  its 
gray  hairs  with  the  wreath  of  Progress. 

On  every  hand  Science  was  bearing  testimony 
against  the  Church.  Voltaire  had  filled  Europe 
with  light;  D'Holbach  was  giving  to  the  elite  of 
Paris  the  principles  contained  in  his  "System  of 
Nature."  The  Encyclopedists  had  attacked  su- 
294 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

perstition  with  information  for  the  masses.  The 
foundation  of  things  began  to  be  examined.  A 
few  had  the  courage  to  keep  their  shoes  on  and 
let  the  bush  burn.  Miracles  began  to  get  scarce. 
Everywhere  the  people  began  to  inquire.  Amer- 
ica had  set  an  example  to  the  world.  The  word 
Liberty  was  in  the  mouths  of  men,  and  they 
began  to  wipe  the  dust  from  their  knees. 

The  dawn  of  a  new  day  had  appeared. 

Thomas  Paine  went  to  France.  Into  the  new 
movement  he  threw  all  his  energies.  His  fame 
had  gone  before  him,  and  he  was  welcomed  as  a 
friend  of  the  human  race,  and  as  a  champion  of 
free  government. 

He  had  never  relinquished  his  intention  of 
pointing  out  to  his  countrymen  the  defects,  ab- 
surdities and  abuses  of  the  English  Government. 
For  this  purpose  he  composed  and  published  his 
greatest  political  work,  the  "Rights  of  Man." 
This  work  should  be  read  by  every  man  and 
woman.  It  is  concise,  accurate,  natural,  convinc- 
ing, and  unanswerable.  It  shows  great  thought ; 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  various  forms  of 
government;  deep  insight  into  the  very  springs 
of  human  action,  and  a  courage  that  compels 
respect  and  admiration.  The  most  difficult  polit- 
ical problems  are  solved  in  a  few  sentences.     The 

295 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

venerable  arguments  in  favor  of  wrong  are  re- 
futed with  a  question — answered  with  a  word. 
For  forcible  illustration,  apt  comparison,  accu- 
racy and  clearness  of  statement,  and  absolute 
thoroughness,  it  has  never  been  excelled. 

The  fears  of  the  Administration  were  aroused, 
and  Paine  was  prosecuted  for  libel  and  found 
guilty;  and  yet  there  is  not  a  sentiment  in  the 
entire  work  that  will  not  challenge  the  admira- 
tion of  every  civilized  man.  It  is  a  magazine  of 
political  wisdom,  an  arsenal  of  ideas,  and  an 
honor,  not  only  to  Thomas  Paine,  but  to  human 
nature  itself.  It  could  have  been  written  only 
by  the  man  who  had  the  generosity,  the  exalted 
patriotism,  the  goodness  to  say,  "The  world  is 
my  country,  and  to  do  good  my  religion." 

There  is  in  all  the  utterances  of  the  world  no 
grander,  no  sublimer  sentiment.  There  is  no 
creed  that  can  be  compared  with  it  for  a  mo- 
ment. It  should  be  wrought  in  gold,  adorned 
with  jewels,  and  impressed  upon  every  human 
heart:  "The  world  is  my  country,  and  to  do 
good  my  religion." 

In  1792,  Paine  was  elected  by  the  department 

of  Calais  as  their  representative  in  the  National 

Assembly.      So    great    was    his    popularity    in 

France  that  he  was  selected  about  the  same  time 

296 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

by  the  people  of  no  less  than  four  departments. 
Upon  taking  his  place  in  the  Assembly  he 
was  appointed  as  one  of  a  committee  to  draft  a 
constitution  for  France.  Had  the  French  people 
taken  the  advice  of  Thomas  Paine  there  would 
have  been  no  "Reign  of  Terror."  The  streets  of 
Paris  would  not  have  been  filled  with  blood. 
The  Revolution  would  have  been  the  grandest 
success  of  the  world.  The  truth  is  that  Paine 
was  too  conservative  to  suit  the  leaders  of  the 
French  Revolution.  They,  to  a  great  extent, 
were  carried  away  by  hatred,  and  a  desire  to  de- 
stroy. They  had  suffered  so  long,  they  had 
borne  so  much,  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to 
be  moderate  in  the  hour  of  victory. 

Besides  all  this,  the  French  people  had  been 
so  robbed  by  the  Government,  so  degraded  by 
the  Church,  that  they  were  not  fit  material  with 
which  to  construct  a  republic.  Many  of  the  lead- 
ers longed  to  establish  a  beneficent  and  just  gov- 
ernment, but  the  people  asked  for  revenge. 

Paine  was  filled  with  a  real  love  for  mankind. 
His  philanthropy  was  boundless.  He  wished  to 
destroy  monarchy — not  the  monarch.  He  voted 
for  the  destruction  of  tyranny,  and  against  the 
death  of  the  King.  He  wished  to  establish  a  gov- 
ernment on  a  new  basis;  one  that  would  forget 
«  297 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

the  past;  one  that  would  give  privileges  to  none, 
and  protection  to  all. 

In  the  Assembly,  where  nearly  all  were  de- 
manding the  execution  of  the  King — where  to 
differ  from  the  majority  was  to  be  suspected, 
and  where  to  be  suspected  was  almost  certain 
death,  Thomas  Paine  had  the  courage,  the  good- 
ness and  the  justice  to  vote  against  death.  To 
vote  against  the  execution  of  the  King  was  a  vote 
against  his  own  life.  This  was  the  sublimity  of 
devotion  to  principle.  For  this  he  was  arrested, 
imprisoned,  and  doomed  to  death. 

Search  the  records  of  the  world  and  you  will 
find  but  few  sublimer  acts  than  that  of  Thomas 
Paine  voting  against  the  King's  death.  He,  the 
hater  of  despotism,  the  abhorrer  of  monarchy,  the 
champion  of  the  rights  of  man,  the  republican, 
accepting  death  to  save  the  life  of  a  deposed 
tyrant — of  a  throneless  king.  This  was  the  last 
grand  act  of  his  political  life — the  sublime  con- 
clusion of  his  political  career. 

All  his  life  he  had  been  the  disinterested 
friend  of  man.  He  had  labored — not  for  money, 
not  for  fame,  but  for  the  general  good.  He  had 
aspired  to  no  office;  had  asked  no  recognition 
of  his  services,  but  had  ever  been  content  to  labor 
as  a  common  soldier  in  the  army  of  Progress. 
298 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Confining  his  efforts  to  no  country,  looking  upon 
the  world  as  his  field  of  action,  filled  with  a  genu- 
ine love  for  the  right,  he  found  himself  impris- 
oned by  the  very  people  he  had  striven  to  save. 

Had  his  enemies  succeeded  in  bringing  him 
to  the  block,  he  would  have  escaped  the  calum- 
nies and  the  hatred  of  the  Christian  world.  In 
this  country,  at  least,  he  would  have  ranked  with 
the  proudest  names.  On  the  anniversary  of  the 
Declaration  his  name  would  have  been  upon  the 
lips  of  all  the  orators,  and  his  memory  in  the 
hearts  of  all  the  people. 

Thomas  Paine  had  not  finished  his  career. 

He  had  spent  his  life  thus  far  in  destroying 
the  power  of  kings,  and  now  he  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  the  priests.  He  knew  that  every  abuse 
had  been  embalmed  in  Scripture — that  every  out- 
rage was  in  partnership  with  some  holy  text. 
He  knew  that  the  throne  skulked  behind  the  altar, 
and  both  behind  a  pretended  revelation  from 
God.  By  this  time  he  had  found  that  it  was  of 
little  use  to  free  the  body  and  leave  the  mind  in 
chains.  He  had  explored  the  foundations  of  des- 
potism, and  had  found  them  infinitely  rotten. 
He  had  dug  under  the  throne,  and  it  occurred  to 
him  that  he  would  take  a  look  behind  the  altar. 

The  result  of  his  investigations  was  given  to 

299 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

the  world  in  the  "Age  of  Reason."  From  the 
moment  of  its  publication  he  became  infamous. 
He  was  calumniated  beyond  measure.  To  slan- 
der him  was  to  secure  the  thanks  of  the  Church. 
All  his  services  were  instantly  forgotten,  dispar- 
aged or  denied.  He  was  shunned  as  though  he 
had  been  a  pestilence.  Most  of  his  old  friends 
forsook  him.  He  was  regarded  as  a  moral 
plague,  and  at  the  bare  mention  of  his  name  the 
bloody  hands  of  the  Church  were  raised  in  horror. 
He  was  denounced  as  the  most  despicable  of  men. 

Not  content  with  following  him  to  his  grave, 
they  pursued  him  after  death  with  redoubled 
fury,  and  recounted  with  infinite  gusto  and  satis- 
faction the  supposed  horrors  of  his  death-bed; 
gloried  in  the  fact  that  he  was  forlorn  and  friend- 
less, and  gloated  like  fiends  over  what  they  sup- 
posed to  be  the  agonizing  remorse  of  his  lonely 
death. 

It  is  wonderful  that  all  his  services  were  thus 
forgotten.  It  is  amazing  that  one  kind  word  did 
not  fall  from  some  pulpit;  that  someone  did  not 
accord  to  him,  at  least — honesty.  Strange,  that 
in  the  general  denunciation  someone  did  not 
remember  his  labor  for  liberty,  his  devotion  to 
principle,  his  zeal  for  the  rights  of  his  fellow-men. 
He  had,  by  brave  and  splendid  effort,  associated 
390 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

his  name  with  the  cause  of  Progress.  He  had 
made  it  impossible  to  write  the  history  of  political 
freedom  with  his  name  left  out.  He  was  one  of 
the  creators  of  light;  one  of  the  heralds  of  the 
dawn.  He  hated  tyranny  in  the  name  of  kings, 
and  in  the  name  of  God,  with  every  drop  of  his 
noble  blood.  He  believed  in  liberty  and  justice, 
and  in  the  sacred  doctrine  of  human  equality. 
Under  these  divine  banners  he  fought  the  battle 
of  his  life.  In  both  worlds  he  offered  his  blood 
for  the  good  of  man.  In  the  wilderness  of 
America,  in  the  French  Assembly,  in  the  somber 
cell  waiting  for  death,  he  was  the  same  unflinch- 
ing, unwavering  friend  of  his  race ;  the  same  un- 
daunted champion  of  universal  freedom.  And 
for  this  he  has  been  hated;  for  this  the  Church 
has  violated  even  his  grave. 

This  is  enough  to  make  one  believe  that 
nothing  is  more  natural  than  for  men  to  devour 
their  benefactors.  The  people  in  all  ages  have 
crucified  and  glorified.  Whoever  lifts  his  voice 
against  abuses,  whoever  arraigns  the  past  at  the 
bar  of  the  present,  whoever  asks  the  king  to  show 
his  commission,  or  questions  the  authority  of  the 
priest,  will  be  denounced  as  the  enemy  of  man 
and  God.  In  all  ages  reason  has  been  regarded 
as  the  enemy  of  religion.     Nothing  has  been  con- 

301 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

sidered  so  pleasing  to  the  Deity  as  a  total  denial 
of  the  authority  of  your  own  mind.  Self-reliance 
has  been  thought  a  deadly  sin;  and  the  idea  of 
living  and  dying  without  the  aid  and  consolation 
of  superstition  has  always  horrified  the  Church. 
By  some  unaccountable  infatuation,  belief  has 
been  and  still  is  considered  of  immense  impor- 
tance. All  religions  have  been  based  upon  the  idea 
that  God  will  forever  reward  the  true  believer, 
and  eternally  damn  the  man  who  doubts  or  denies. 
Belief  is  regarded  as  the  one  essential  thing.  To 
practise  justice,  to  love  mercy,  is  not  enough. 
You  must  believe  in  some  incomprehensible  creed. 
You  must  say,  "Once  one  is  three,  and  three 
times  one  is  one."  The  man  who  practised  every 
virtue,  but  failed  to  believe,  was  execrated. 
Nothing  so  outrages  the  feelings  of  the  Church  as 
a  moral  unbeliever — nothing  so  horrible  as  a 
charitable  Atheist. 

When  Paine  was  born,  the  world  was  relig- 
ious, the  pulpit  was  the  real  throne,  and  the 
churches  were  making  every  effort  to  crush  out 
of  the  brain  the  idea  that  it  had  the  right  to  think. 

The  splendid  saying  of  Lord  Bacon,  that 

"the  inquiry  of  truth,  which  is  the  love-making  or 

wooing  of  it,  the  knowledge  of  truth,  which  is  the 

presence  of  it,  and  the  belief  of  truth,  which  is  the 

302 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

enjoying  of  it,  are  the  sovereign  good  of  human 
nature,"  has  been,  and  ever  will  be,  rejected  by 
religionists.  Intellectual  liberty,  as  a  matter  of 
necessity,  forever  destroys  the  idea  that  belief  is 
either  praise-  or  blame-worthy,  and  is  wholly 
inconsistent  with  every  creed  in  Christendom. 
Paine  recognized  this  truth.  He  also  saw  that 
as  long  as  the  Bible  was  considered  inspired, 
this  infamous  doctrine  of  the  virtue  of  belief 
would  be  believed  and  preached.  He  examined 
the  Scriptures  for  himself,  and  found  them  filled 
with  cruelty,  absurdity  and  immorality. 

He  again  made  up  his  mind  to  sacrifice  him- 
self for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men. 

He  commenced  with  the  assertion,  "That  any 
system  of  religion  that  has  anything  in  it  that 
shocks  the  mind  of  a  child  cannot  be  a  true 
system."  What  a  beautiful,  what  a  tender  senti- 
ment! No  wonder  the  Church  began  to  hate  him. 
He  believed  in  one  God,  and  no  more.  After 
this  life  he  hoped  for  happiness.  He  believed 
that  true  religion  consisted  in  doing  justice,  lov- 
ing mercy,  in  endeavoring  to  make  our  fellow 
creatures  happy,  and  in  offering  to  God  the  fruit 
of  the  heart.  He  denied  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures.     This  was  his  crime. 

He  contended  that  it  is  a  contradiction  in 

303 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

terms  to  call  anything  a  revelation  that  comes  to 
us  second-hand,  either  verbally  or  in  writing. 
He  asserted  that  revelation  is  necessarily  limited 
to  the  first  communication,  and  that  after  that  it 
is  only  an  account  of  something  which  another 
person  says  was  a  revelation  to  him.  We  have 
only  his  word  for  it,  as  it  was  never  made  to  us. 
This  argument  never  has  been  and  probably 
never  will  be  answered.  He  denied  the  divine 
origin  of  Christ,  and  showed  conclusively  that 
the  pretended  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament 
had  no  reference  to  him  whatever;  and  yet  he 
believed  that  Christ  was  a  virtuous  and  amiable 
man;  that  the  morality  he  taught  and  practised 
was  of  the  most  benevolent  and  elevated  charac- 
ter and  that  it  had  not  been  exceeded  by  any. 
Upon  this  point  he  entertained  the  same  senti- 
ments now  held  by  the  Unitarians,  and  in  fact  by 
all  the  most  enlightened  Christians. 

In  his  time  the  Church  believed  and  taught 
that  every  word  in  the  Bible  was  absolutely  true. 
Since  his  day  it  has  been  proven  false  in  its  cos- 
mogony, false  in  its  astronomy,  false  in  its  chro- 
nology, false  in  its  history,  and  so  far  as  the  Old 
Testament  is  concerned,  false  in  almost  every- 
thing. There  are  but  few,  if  any,  scientific  men 
who  apprehend  that  the  Bible  is  literally  true. 
304. 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Who  on  earth  at  this  day  would  pretend  to  settle 
any  scientific  question  by  a  text  from  the  Bible? 
The  old  belief  is  confined  to  the  ignorant  and 
zealous.  The  Church  itself  will  before  long  be 
driven  to  occupy  the  position  of  Thomas  Paine. 
The  best  minds  of  the  orthodox  world,  to-day, 
are  endeavoring  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  per- 
sonal Deity.  All  other  questions  occupy  a  minor 
place.  You  are  no  longer  asked  to  swallow  the 
Bible  whole,  whale,  Jonah  and  all ;  you  are  simply 
required  to  believe  in  God,  and  pay  your  pew- 
rent.  There  is  not  now  an  enlightened  minister 
in  the  world  who  will  seriously  contend  that 
Samson's  strength  was  in  his  hair,  or  that  the 
necromancers  of  Egypt  could  turn  water  into 
blood,  and  pieces  of  wood  into  serpents. 

These  follies  have  passed  away,  and  the  only 
reason  that  the  religious  world  can  now  have  for 
disliking  Paine  is  that  they  have  been  forced  to 
adopt  so  many  of  his  opinions. 

Paine  thought  the  barbarities  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament inconsistent  with  what  he  deemed  the  real 
character  of  God.  He  believed  that  murder, 
massacre  and  indiscriminate  slaughter  had  never 
been  commanded  by  the  Deity.  He  regarded 
much  of  the  Bible  as  childish,  unimportant  and 
foolish.     The  scientific  world  entertains  the  same 

305 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

opinion.  Paine  attacked  the  Bible  precisely  in 
the  same  spirit  in  which  he  had  attacked  the  pre- 
tensions of  kings.  He  used  the  same  weapons. 
All  the  pomp  in  the  world  could  not  make  him 
cower.  His  reason  knew  no  "Holy  of  Holies," 
except  the  abode  of  Truth.  The  sciences  were 
then  in  their  infancy.  The  attention  of  the  really 
learned  had  not  been  directed  to  an  impartial 
examination  of  our  pretended  revelation.  It 
was  accepted  by  most  as  a  matter  of  course.  The 
Church  was  all-powerful,  and  no  one,  unless 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice, 
thought  for  a  moment  of  disputing  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  Christianity. 

The  infamous  doctrines  that  salvation  de- 
pends upon  belief — upon  a  mere  intellectual  con- 
viction— was  then  believed  and  preached.  To 
doubt  was  to  secure  the  damnation  of  your  soul. 
This  absurd  and  devilish  doctrine  shocked  the 
common  sense  of  Thomas  Paine,  and  he  de- 
nounced it  with  the  fervor  of  honest  indignation. 
This  doctrine,  although  infinitely  ridiculous,  has 
been  nearly  universal,  and  has  been  as  hurtful  as 
senseless.  For  the  overthrow  of  this  infamous 
tenet,  Paine  exerted  all  his  strength.  He  left  few 
arguments  to  be  used  by  those  who  should  come 
after  him,  and  he  used  none  that  have  been  re- 
306 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

futed.  The  combined  wisdom  and  genius  of  all 
mankind  cannot  possibly  conceive  of  an  argument 
against  liberty  of  thought.  Neither  can  they 
show  why  anyone  should  be  punished,  either  in 
this  world  or  another,  for  acting  honestly  in  ac- 
cordance with  reason;  and  yet  a  doctrine  with 
every  possible  argument  against  it  has  been,  and 
still  is,  believed  and  defended  by  the  entire  ortho- 
dox world. 

Can  it  be  possible  that  we  have  been  endowed 
with  reason  simply  that  our  souls  may  be  caught 
in  its  toils  and  snares,  that  we  may  be  led  by  its 
false  and  delusive  glare  out  of  the  narrow  path 
that  leads  to  joy  into  the  broad  way  of  ever- 
lasting death?  Is  it  possible  that  we  have  been 
given  reason  simply  that  we  may  through  faith 
ignore  its  deductions,  and  avoid  its  conclusions? 
Ought  the  sailor  to  throw  away  his  compass  and 
depend  entirely  upon  the  fog?  If  reason  is  not 
to  be  depended  upon  in  matters  of  religion,  that 
is  to  say,  in  respect  of  our  duties  to  the  Deity, 
why  should  it  be  relied  upon  in  matters  respect- 
ing the  rights  of  our  fellows?  Why  should  we 
throw  away  the  laws  given  to  Moses  by  God 
himself,  and  have  the  audacity  to  make  some  of 
our  own?  How  dare  we  drown  the  thunders  of 
Sinai  by  calling  the  ayes  and  noes  in  a  petty 

307 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

legislature?  If  reason  can  determine  what  is 
merciful,  what  is  just,  the  duties  of  man  to  man, 
what  more  do  we  want  either  in  time  or  eternity? 
Down,  forever  down,  with  any  religion  that 
requires  upon  its  ignorant  altar  the  sacrifice  of 
the  goddess  Reason,  that  compels  her  to  abdi- 
cate forever  the  shining  throne  of  the  soul,  strips 
from  her  form  the  imperial  purple,  snatches  from 
her  hand  the  scepter  of  thought  and  makes  her 
the  bond-woman  of  a  senseless  faith! 
****** 

I  challenge  the  world  to  show  that  Thomas 
Paine  ever  wrote  one  line,  one  word  in  favor  of 
tyranny — in  favor  of  immorality;  one  line,  one 
word  against  what  he  believed  to  be  for  the  high- 
est and  best  interest  of  mankind;  one  line,  one 
word  against  justice,  charity,  or  liberty,  and  yet 
he  has  been  pursued  as  though  he  had  been  a 
fiend  from  hell.    His  memory  has  been  execrated 
as  though  he  had  murdered  some  Uriah  for  his 
wife;   driven   some   Hagar  into   the   desert   to 
starve  with  his  child  upon  her  bosom;  defiled  his 
own  daughters;  ripped  open  with  the  sword  the 
sweet  bodies  of  loving  and  innocent  women;  ad- 
vised one  brother  to  assassinate  another;  kept  a 
harem  with  seven  hundred  wives  and  three  hun- 
308 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

dred   concubines,  or  had  persecuted   Christians 
even  unto  strange  cities.  . ,. 

****** 

Thomas  Paine  was  one  of  the  intellectual 
heroes — one  of  the  men  to  whom  we  are  indebted. 
His  name  is  associated  forever  with  the  Great 
Republic.  As  long  as  free  government  exists  he 
will  be  remembered,  admired  and  honored. 

He  lived  a  long,  laborious  and  useful  life. 
The  world  is  better  for  his  having  lived.  For 
the  sake  of  truth  he  accepted  hatred  and  reproach 
for  his  portion.  He  ate  the  bitter  bread  of  sor- 
row. His  friends  were  untrue  to  him  because 
he  was  true  to  himself,  and  true  to  them.  He 
lost  the  respect  of  what  is  called  society,  but  kept 
his  own.  His  life  is  what  the  world  calls  failure 
and  what  history  calls  success. 

If  to  love  your  fellow-men  more  than  self  is 
goodness,  Thomas  Paine  was  good. 

If  to  be  in  advance  of  your  time — to  be  a 
pioneer  in  the  direction  of  right — is  greatness, 
Thomas  Paine  was  great. 

If  to  avow  your  principles  and  discharge  your 
duty  in  the  presence  of  death  is  heroic,  Thomas 
Paine  was  a  hero. 

At  the  age  of  seventy-three,  death  touched 
his  tired  heart.     He  died  in  the  land  his  genius 

309 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

defended — under  the  flag  he  gave  to  the  skies. 
Slander  cannot  touch  him  now — hatred  cannot 
reach  him  more.  He  sleeps  in  the  sanctuary  of 
the  tomb,  beneath  the  quiet  of  the  stars. 

A  few  more  years — a  few  more  brave  men — 
a  few  more  rays  of  light,  and  mankind  will  ven- 
erate the  memory  of  him  who  said: 

"Any  system  of  Religion  that  shocks  the 
mind  of  a  child  cannot  be  a  true  system"; 

"The  world  is  my  Country,  and  to  do  good 
my  Religion." 


310 


CHOMAS    PAINE 

the  flag  he  gave  to  the  skies. 
>uch  him  now — hatred  cannot 
more.     He  sleeps  in  the  sanctuary  of 
b,  beneath  the  quiet  of  the  stars. 
A  few  more  years — a  few  more  brave  men — 
a  few  more  rays  <  and  mankind  will  ven- 

erate the  memory  of  him 
"Any 

„TiirMOM'.UENT  TO  THOMAS  PAINK 

Photogravure    from    an    Original    Photograph    of    the 
Monument  at  New  Rochelle,  N.Y. 


A  LITTLE  JOURNEY  TO  THE  HOME 
OF  THOMAS  PAINE* 

By  Elbert  Hubbard 

THOMAS  PAINE  was  an  English  me- 
chanic, of  Quaker  origin,  born  in  the  year 
1737-  He  was  the  author  of  four  books  that 
have  influenced  mankind  profoundly.  These 
books  are  "Common  Sense,"  the  "Age  of  Rea- 
son," the  "Crisis"  and  the  "Rights  of  Man." 

In  1774,  when  he  was  thirty-seven  years  old, 
he  came  to  America  bearing  letters  of  introduc- 
tion from  Benjamin  Franklin. 

On  arriving  at  Philadelphia  he  soon  found 
work  as  editor  of  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine, 

In  1775,  in  the  magazine  just  named,  he  open- 
ly advocated,  and  prophesied  a  speedy  separation 
of  the  American  colonies  from  England.  He 
also  threw  a  purple  shadow  over  his  popularity 
by  declaring  his  abhorrence  of  chattel  slavery. 

His  writings,  from  the  first,  commanded  a 
profound  attention,  and  on  the  advice  and  sug- 
gestion of  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  an  eminent  citi- 
zen of  Philadelphia,  the  scattered  editorials  and 

•Reprinted   by   special   permission   of  the   author. — Ed. 

311 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

paragraphs  on  human  rights,  covering  a  year, 
were  gathered,  condensed,  revised,  made  into  a 
book. 

This  "pamphlet,"  or  paper-bound  book,  was 
called  "Common  Sense." 

In  France,  John  Adams  was  accused  of  wri- 
ting "Common  Sense."  He  stoutly  denied  it, 
there  being  several  allusions  in  it  stronger  than 
he  cared  to  stand  sponsor  for. 

In  England,  Franklin  was  accused  of  being 
the  author,  and  he  neither  denied  nor  admitted  it. 
But  when  a  lady  reproached  him  for  having  used 
the  fine  alliterative  phrase,  applied  to  the  King, 
"That  Royal  British  Brute,"  he  smiled  and  said 
blandly,  "Madame,  I  would  never  have  been  as 
disrespectful  to  the  brute  creation  as  that." 

"Common  Sense"  struck  the  keynote  of  pop- 
ular feeling,  and  the  accusation  of  "treason," 
hurled  at  it  from  many  sources,  only  served  to 
advertise  it.  It  supplied  the  common  people 
with  reasons,  and  gave  statesmen  arguments. 
The  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  voted  Paine  an 
honorarium  of  five  hundred  pounds,  and  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  awarded  him  the  degree 
of  "Master  of  Arts,"  in  recognition  of  eminent 
services  to  literature  and  human  rights.  John 
Quincy  Adams  said,  "Paine's  pamphlet,  'Com- 
312 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

mon  Sense/  crystallized  public  opinion  and  was 
the  first  factor  in  bringing  about  the  Revolution." 

Rev.  Theodore  Parker  once  said,  "Every  liv- 
ing man  in  America  in  1776,  who  could  read, 
read  'Common  Sense,'  by  Thomas  Paine.  If 
he  were  a  Tory,  he  read  it,  at  least  a  little,  just 
to  find  out  for  himself  how  atrocious  it  was ;  and 
if  he  was  a  Whig,  he  read  it  all  to  find  the  reasons 
why  he  was  one.  This  book  was  the  arsenal  to 
which  colonists  went  for  their  mental  weapons." 

As  "Common  Sense"  was  published  anony- 
mously and  without  copyright,  and  was  circulated 
at  bare  cost,  Paine  never  received  anything  for 
the  work,  save  the  twenty-five  hundred  dollars 
voted  to  him  by  the  Legislature. 

When  independence  was  declared,  Paine  en- 
listed as  a  private,  but  was  soon  made  aide-de- 
camp to  General  Greene.  He  was  an  intrepid 
and  effective  soldier  and  took  an  active  part  in 
various  battles. 

In  December,  1776,  he  published  his  second 
book,  the  "Crisis,"  the  first  words  of  which  have 
gone  into  the  electrotype  of  human  speech, 
"These  are  the  times  that  try  men's  souls."  The 
intent  of  the  letters  which  make  up  the  "Crisis" 
was  to  infuse  courage  into  the  sinking  spirits  of 
the  soldiers.     Washington  ordered  the  letters  to 

i-w  313 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

be  read  at  the  head  of  every  regiment,  and  it 
was  so  done. 

In  1781  Paine  was  sent  to  France  with 
Colonel  Laurens  to  negotiate  a  loan.  The  er- 
rand was  successful,  and  Paine  then  made 
influential  acquaintances,  which  were  later  to  be 
renewed.  He  organized  the  Bank  of  North 
America  to  raise  money  to  feed  and  clothe  the 
army,  and  performed  sundry  and  various  services 
for  the  colonies. 

In  1791  he  published  his  third  book,  the 
"Rights  of  Man,"  with  a  complimentary  preface 
by  Thomas  Jefferson.  The  book  had  an  im- 
mense circulation  in  America  and  England.  By 
way  of  left-handed  recognition  of  the  work,  the 
author  was  indicted  by  the  British  Government 
for  "sedition."  A  day  was  set  for  the  trial  but 
as  Paine  did  not  appear — those  were  hanging 
days — and  could  not  be  found,  he  was  outlawed 
and  "banished  forever." 

He  became  a  member  of  the  French  Assem- 
bly, or  "Chamber  of  Deputies,"  and  for  voting 
against  the  death  of  the  King,  came  under  sus- 
picion, and  was  imprisoned  for  one  year,  lacking 
a  few  weeks.  His  life  was  saved  by  James  Mon- 
roe, America's  Minister  to  France,  and  for  eigh- 
314 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

teen  months  he  was  a  member  of  Monroe's  house- 
hold. 

In  1794  while  in  France,  there  was  published 
simultaneously  in  England,  America  and  France, 
Paine's  fourth  book,  the  "Age  of  Reason." 

In  1802  Thomas  Jefferson,  then  President  of 
the  United  States,  offered  Paine  passage  to 
America  on  board  the  man-of-war  Maryland,  in 
order  that  he  might  be  safe  from  capture  by  the 
English  who  had  him  under  constant  surveillance, 
and  were  intent  on  his  arrest,  regarding  him  as 
the  chief  instigator  in  the  American  Rebellion. 
Arriving  in  America,  Paine  was  the  guest  for 
several  months  of  the  President  at  Monticello. 
His  admirers  in  Baltimore,  Washington,  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York  gave  banquets  in  his 
honor,  and  he  was  tendered  grateful  recognition 
on  account  of  his  services  to  humanity  and  his 
varied  talents.  He  was  presented  by  the  State  of 
New  York  "in  token  of  heroic  work  for  the 
Union,"  a  farm  at  New  Rochelle,  eighteen  miles 
from  New  York,  and  here  he  lived  in  compara- 
tive ease,  writing  and  farming. 

He  passed  peacefully  away,  aged  seventy-two, 
in  1809,  and  his  body  was  buried  on  his  farm,  near 
the  house  where  he  lived,  and  a  modest  monument 
erected  marking  the  spot.     He  had  no  Christian 

315 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

burial,  although  unlike  Mr.  Zangwill,  he  had  a 
Christian  name.  Nine  years  after  the  death  of 
Paine,  William  Cobbett,  the  eminent  English  re- 
former, stung  by  the  obloquy  visited  upon  the 
memory  of  Paine  in  America,  had  the  grave 
opened  and  the  bones  of  the  man  who  wrote  the 
first  draft  of  our  Declaration  of  Independence, 
were  removed  to  England,  and  buried  near  the 
spot  where  he  was  born.  Death  having  silenced 
both  the  tongue  and  pen  of  the  Thetford  weaver, 
no  violent  interference  was  offered  by  the  British 
Government.  So  now  the  dead  man  slept  where 
the  presence  of  the  living  one  was  barred  and 
forbidden.  A  modest  monument  marks  the  spot. 
Beneath  the  name  are  these  words,  "The  world 
is  my  country,  mankind  are  my  friends,  to  do 
good  is  my  religion." 

In  1839  a  monument  was  erected  at  New  Ro- 
chelle,  N.Y.,  on  the  site  of  the  empty  grave  where 
the  body  of  Paine  was  first  buried,  by  the  lovers 
and  admirers  of  the  man.  And  while  only  one 
land  claims  his  birthplace,  three  countries  dispute 
for  the  privilege  of  honoring  his  dust,  for  in 
France  there  is  now  a  strong  movement  demand- 
ing that  the  remains  of  Thomas  Paine  be  re- 
moved from  England  to  France,  and  be  placed 
in  the  Pantheon,  that  resting  place  of  so  many  of 
316 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

the  illustrious  dead  who  gave  their  lives  to  the 
cause  of  Freedom,  close  by  the  graves  of  Voltaire, 
Rousseau  and  Victor  Hugo.  And  the  reason 
the  bones  were  not  removed  to  Paris,  was  because 
only  an  empty  coffin  rests  in  the  grave  at  Thet- 
ford,  as  at  New  Rochelle.  Rumor  says  that 
Paine's  skull  is  in  a  London  museum,  but  if  so, 
the  head  that  produced  the  "Age  of  Reason" 
cannot  be  identified.     And  the  end  is  not  yet. 

The  genius  of  Paine  was  a  flower  that  blos- 
somed slowly.  But  life  is  a  sequence  and  the 
man  who  does  great  work  has  been  in  training  for 
it.  There  is  nothing  like  keeping  in  condition, 
one  does  not  know  when  he  is  going  to  be  called 
upon.  Prepared  people  do  not  have  to  hunt  for 
a  position — the  position  hunts  for  them.  Paine 
knew  no  more  about  what  he  was  getting  ready 
for  than  did  Benjamin  Franklin,  when  at  twenty 
he  studied  French,  evenings,  and  dived  deep  into 
history. 

The  humble  origin  of  Paine  and  his  Quaker 
ancestry  were  most  helpful  factors  in  his  career. 
Only  a  working  man  who  had  tasted  hardship 
could  sympathize  with  the  over-taxed  and  op- 
pressed. And  Quakerdom  made  him  a  rebel  by 
prenatal  tendency.  Paine's  schooling  was  slight 
but  his  parents,  though  poor,  were  thinking  peo- 

317 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS   PAINE 

pie,  for  nothing  sharpens  the  wits  of  men,  pre- 
venting fatty  degeneration  of  the  cerebrum,  like 
persecution.  In  this  respect  the  Jews  and 
Quakers  have  been  greatly  blessed  and  benefited 
— let  us  congratulate  them.  Very  early  in  life 
Paine  acquired  the  study  habit.  And  for  the 
youth  who  has  the  study  habit  no  pedagogic  tears 
need  be  shed.  There  were  debating  clubs  at  cof- 
fee-houses where  great  themes  were  discussed; 
and  our  young  weaver  began  his  career  by  de- 
fending the  Quakers.  He  acquired  considerable 
local  reputation  as  a  weaver  of  thoughts  upon 
the  warp  and  woof  of  words.  Occasionally  he 
occupied  the  pulpit  in  dissenting  chapels. 

These  were  great  times  in  England — the  air 
was  all  a-throb  with  thought  and  feeling.  A 
great  tidal  wave  of  unrest  swept  the  land.  It 
was  an  epoch  of  growth,  second  only  in  history 
to  the  Italian  Renaissance.  The  two  Wesleys 
were  attacking  the  Church  and  calling  upon  men 
to  methodize  their  lives  and  eliminate  folly ;  Gib- 
bon was  writing  his  "Decline  and  Fall";  Burke, 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  was  polishing  his 
brogue ;  Boswell  was  busy  blithering  about  a  book 
concerning  a  man ;  Captain  Cook  was  sailing  the 
seas  finding  continents ;  the  two  Pitts  and  Charles 
Fox  were  giving  the  King  unpalatable  advice; 
318 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

Horace  Walpole  was  setting  up  his  private  press 
at  Strawberry  Hill;  the  Herschels — brother  and 
sister — were  sweeping  the  heavens  for  comets; 
Reynolds,  West,  Lawrence,  Romney  and  Gains- 
borough were  founding  the  first  school  of  British 
art;  and  Hume,  the  Scotchman,  was  putting 
forth  arguments  irrefutable.  And  into  this 
seething  discontent  came  Thomas  Paine,  the 
weaver,  reading,  studying,  thinking,  talking,  with 
nothing  to  lose  but  his  reputation. 

He  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age  when  he 
met  Ben  Franklin,  at  a  coffee-house  in  London. 
Paine  got  his  first  real  mental  impetus  from 
Franklin.  Both  were  working  men.  Paine  sat 
and  watched  and  listened  to  Franklin  one  whole 
evening,  and  then  said,  "What  he  is  I  can  at  least 
in  part  become."  Paine  thought  Franklin  quite 
the  greatest  man  of  his  time,  an  opinion  he  never 
relinquished,  and  which  also,  among  various 
others  held  by  Paine,  the  world  has  now  finally 
accepted. 

Paine  at  twenty-four,  from  a  simple  weaver, 
had  been  called  into  the  office  of  his  employer  to 
help  straighten  out  the  accounts.  He  tried  store- 
keeping  but  with  indifferent  success.  Then  it 
seems  he  was  employed  by  the  Board  of  Excise 
on  a  similar  task.     Finally  he  was  given  a  posi- 

319 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

tion  in  the  Excise.  This  position  he  might  have 
held  indefinitely,  and  been  promoted  in  the  work, 
for  he  had  clerical  talents  which  made  his  services 
valuable.  But  there  was  another  theme  that  in- 
terested him  quite  as  much  as  collecting  taxes  for 
the  Government,  and  that  was  the  philosophy 
of  taxation.  This  was  very  foolish  in  Thomas 
Paine — a  tax  collector  should  collect  taxes,  and 
not  concern  himself  with  the  righteousness  of 
the  business,  nor  about  what  becomes  of  the 
money. 

Paine  had  made  note  of  the  fact  that  England 
collected  taxes  from  Jews  but  that  Jews  were  not 
allowed  to  vote,  because  they  were  not  "Chris- 
tians," it  being  assumed  that  Jews  were  neither 
as  fit  intellectually  or  morally  to  pass  on  questions 
of  state  as  members  of  the  "Church."  In  1771  in 
a  letter  to  a  local  paper  he  used  the  phrase,  "The 
iniquity  of  taxation  without  representation,"  re- 
ferring to  England's  treatment  of  the  Quakers. 
About  the  same  time  he  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  Christian  religion  was  built  on  the 
Judaic,  and  that  the  reputed  founder  of  the  es- 
tablished religion  was  a  Jew  and  his  mother  a 
Jewess,  and  to  deprive  Jews  of  the  right  of  full 
citizenship,  simply  because  they  did  not  take  the 
same  view  of  Jesus  that  others  did  was  a  perver- 
320 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

sion  of  the  natural  rights  of  man.  This  expres- 
sion, "The  natural  rights  of  man,"  gave  offense 
to  a  certain  clergyman  of  Thetford  who  replied 
that  man  had  no  natural  rights,  only  privileges, 
all  the  rights  he  had  were  those  granted  by  the 
Crown.  Then  followed  a  debate  at  the  coffee- 
house followed  by  a  rebuke  from  Paine's  superior 
officer  in  the  Excise,  ordering  him  to  cease  all 
political  and  religious  controversy  on  penalty. 

Paine  felt  the  smart  of  the  rebuke ;  he  thought 
it  was  unjustified,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
excellence  of  his  work  for  the  Government  had 
never  been  questioned.  So  he  made  a  speech  in 
a  dissenting  chapel  explaining  the  situation. 
But  explanations  never  explain,  and  his  assertion 
that  the  honesty  of  his  service  had  never  been 
questioned  was  put  out  of  commission  the  follow- 
ing week  by  the  charge  of  smuggling.  His 
name  was  dropped  from  the  official  pay-roll  until 
his  case  could  be  tried,  and  a  little  later  he  was 
peremptorily  discharged.  The  charge  against 
him  was  not  pressed — he  was  simply  not  wanted, 
and  the  statement  by  the  head  exciseman  that  a 
man  working  for  the  Government  should  not 
criticize  the  Government  was  pretty  good  logic, 
anyway.  Paine,  however,  contended  that  all  gov- 
ernments exist  for  the  governed,  and  with  the 

321 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

consent  of  the  governed,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  all 
good  citizens  to  take  an  interest  in  their  Govern- 
ment and  if  possible  show  where  it  can  be 
strengthened  and  bettered. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Paine  was  forging 
reasons — his  active  brain  was  at  work,  and  his 
sensitive  spirit  was  writhing  under  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal injustice.  One  of  his  critics — a  clergyman 
— said  that  if  Thomas  Paine  wished  to  preach 
sedition  there  was  plenty  of  room  to  do  it  outside 
of  England.  Paine  followed  the  suggestion, 
and  straightway  sought  out  Franklin  to  ask  him 
about  going  to  America. 

Every  idea  that  Paine  had  expressed  was  held 
by  Franklin  and  had  been  thought  out  at  length. 
Franklin  was  thirty-one  years  older  than  Paine, 
and  time  had  tempered  his  zeal,  and  besides  that, 
his  tongue  was  always  well  under  control  and 
when  he  expressed  heresy  he  seasoned  it  with  a 
smile  and  a  dash  of  wit  that  took  the  bitterness 
out  of  it.  Not  so  Paine — he  was  an  earnest  soul, 
a  little  lacking  in  humor,  without  the  adipose 
which  is  required  for  a  diplomat. 

Franklin's  letters  of  introduction  show  how  he 
admired  the  man — what  faith  he  had  in  him — and 
it  is  now  believed  that  Franklin  advanced  him 
money,  that  he  might  come  to  America. 
322 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

William  Cobbett  says: 

As  my  Lord  Grenville  introduced  the  name  of  Burke, 
suffer  me,  my  Lord,  to  introduce  that  of  a  man  who  put 
this  Burke  to  shame,  who  drove  him  off  the  public  stage 
to  seek  shelter  in  the  pension  list,  and  who  is  now  named 
fifty  million  times  where  the  name  of  the  pensioned 
Burke  is  mentioned  once.  The  cause  of  the  American 
colonies  was  the  cause  of  the  English  Constitution, 
which  says  that  no  man  shall  be  taxed  without  his  own 
consent.  A  little  cause  sometimes  produces  a  great  effect ; 
an  insult  offered  to  a  man  of  great  talent  and  uncon- 
querable perseverance  has  in  many  instances  produced,  in 
the  long  run,  most  tremendous  effects ;  and  it  appears  to 
me  very  clear  that  the  inexcusable  insults,  offered  to  Mr. 
Paine  while  he  was  in  the  Excise  in  England,  was  the 
real  cause  of  the  Revolution  in  America ;  for,  though  the 
nature  of  the  cause  of  America  was  such  as  I  have  before 
described  it ;  though  the  principles  were  firm  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  of  that  country ;  still,  it  was  Mr.  Paine,  and 
Mr.  Paine  alone,  who  brought  those  principles  into  ac- 
tion. 

Paine's  part  in  the  Revolutionary  War  was 
most  worthy  and  honorable.  He  shouldered  a 
musket  with  the  men  at  Valley  Forge,  carried 
messages  by  night  through  the  enemy's  country, 
acted  as  rear  guard  for  Washington's  retreating 
army,  and  helped  at  break  of  day  to  capture 
Trenton,  and  proved  his  courage  in  various  ways. 
As  clerk,  secretary,  accountant  and  financier  he 
did  excellent  service. 

323 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

Of  course,  there  had  been  the  usual  harmo- 
nious discord  that  will  occur  among  men  hard- 
pressed,  overworked,  where  nerve-tension  finds 
vent  at  times  in  acrimony.  But  through  all  the 
nine  weary  years  before  the  British  had  enough, 
Paine  had  never  been  censured  with  the  same  bit- 
terness which  had  fallen  upon  the  heads  of  Wash- 
ington and  Jefferson.  Even  Franklin  came  in 
for  his  share  of  blame,  and  it  was  shown  that  he 
expended  an  even  hundred  thousand  pounds  in 
Europe,  with  no  explanation  of  what  he  had  done 
with  the  money.  When  called  upon  to  give  an  ac- 
counting for  the  "yellow  dog  fund,"  Franklin 
simply  wrote  back,  "  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the 
ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn."  And  on  the  sug- 
gestion of  Thomas  Paine  the  matter  was  officially 
dropped. 

Paine  was  a  writing  man — the  very  first 
American  writing  man — and  I  am  humiliated 
when  I  have  to  acknowledge  that  we  had  to  get 
him  from  England.  He  was  the  first  man  who 
ever  used  these  words,  "  The  American  Nation," 
and  also  these,  "  The  United  States  of  America." 
Paine  is  the  first  American  writer  who  had  a  liter- 
ary style,  and  we  have  not  had  so  many  since  but 
that  you  may  count  them  on  the  fingers  of  one 
hand.  Note  this  sample  of  antithesis:  "There 
324 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

are  but  two  natural  sources  of  wealth — the  earth 
and  the  ocean — and  to  lose  the  right  to  either,  in 
our  situation,  is  to  put  the  other  up  for  sale." 

Here  is  a  little  tribute  from  Paine's  pen  to 
America  which  some  of  our  boomers  of  boom 
towns  might  do  well  to  use : 

America  has  now  outgrown  the  state  of  infancy. 
Her  strength  and  commerce  make  large  advances  to  man- 
hood; and  science  in  all  its  branches  has  not  only  blos- 
somed, but  even  ripened  upon  the  soil.  The  cottages  as 
it  were  of  yesterday  have  grown  into  villages,  and  the 
villages  to  cities ;  and  while  proud  antiquity,  like  a  skele- 
ton in  rags,  parades  the  streets  of  other  nations,  their 
genius  as  if  sickened  and  disgusted  with  the  phantom, 
comes  hither  for  recovery.  America  yet  inherits  a  large 
portion  of  her  first-imported  virtue.  Degeneracy  is  here 
almost  a  useless  word.  Those  who  are  conversant  with 
Europe  would  be  tempted  to  believe  that  even  the  air  of 
the  Atlantic  disagrees  with  the  constitution  of  foreign 
vices;  if  they  survive  the  voyage  they  either  expire  on 
their  arrival,  or  linger  away  with  an  incurable  consump- 
tion. There  is  a  happy  something  in  the  climate  of 
America  which  disarms  them  of  all  their  power  both  of 
infection  and  attraction. 

Ease,  fluidity,  grace,  imagination,  energy, 
earnestness,  mark  his  work.  No  wonder  is  it  that 
Franklin  said,  "  Others  can  rule,  many  can  fight, 
but  only  Paine  can  write  for  us  the  English 
tongue."     And  Jefferson,  himself  a  great  writer, 

325 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

was  constantly,  for  many  years,  sending  to  Paine 
manuscript  for  criticism  and  correction.  In  one 
letter  to  Paine,  Jefferson  adds  this  postscript, 
"  You  must  not  be  too  much  elated  and  set  up 
when  I  tell  you  my  belief  that  you  are  the  only 
writer  in  America  who  can  write  better  than  your 
obliged  and  obedient  servant — Thomas  Jeffer- 
son." 

Paine  was  living  in  peace  at  Bordentown  in 
the  year  1787.  The  war  was  ended — the  last  hos- 
tile Britisher  had  departed,  and  the  country  was 
awakening  to  prosperity.  Paine  rode  his  mettle- 
some old  war-horse  "  Button,"  back  and  forth 
from  Philadelphia,  often  stopping  and  seating 
himself  by  the  roadway  to  write  out  a  thought 
while  the  horse  that  had  known  the  smell  of  pow- 
der quietly  nibbled  the  grass.  The  success  of 
Benjamin  Franklin  as  an  inventor  had  fired  the 
heart  of  Paine.  He  devised  a  plan  to  utilize  small 
explosions  of  gunpowder  to  run  an  engine,  thus 
anticipating  our  gas  and  gasoline  engines  by  near 
a  hundred  years.  He  had  also  planned  a  bridge 
to  span  the  Schuylkill.  Capitalists  were  ready  to 
build  the  bridge,  provided  Paine  could  get  French 
engineers,  then  the  greatest  in  the  world,  to  en- 
dorse his  plans.  So  he  sailed  away  to  France,  in- 
tending also  to  visit  his  parents  in  England,  in- 
326 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

structing  his  friends  in  Bordentown,  with  whom 
lie  boarded,  to  take  care  of  his  horse,  his  room  and 
books  with  all  his  papers,  for  he  would  be  back  in 
less  than  a  year. 

He  was  fifty  years  old.  It  was  thirteen  years 
since  he  had  left  England,  and  he  felt  that 
his  transplantation  to  a  new  soil  had  not  been 
in  vain.  England  had  practically  exiled  him, 
but  still  the  land  of  his  birth  called,  and  unseen 
tendrils  tugged  at  his  heart.  He  must  again  see 
England,  even  for  a  brief  visit,  and  then  back  to 
America,  the  land  that  he  loved  and  which  he  had 
helped  to  free. 

And  destiny  devised  that  it  was  to  be  fifteen 
years  before  he  was  again  to  see  his  beloved  "Uni- 
ted States  of  America." 

Arriving  in  France,  Paine  was  received  with 
great  honors.  There  was  much  political  unrest 
and  the  fuse  was  then  being  lighted  that  was  to 
cause  the  explosion  of  1789.  However,  of  all  this 
Paine  knew  little.  He  met  Danton,  a  Free- 
mason like  himself,  and  various  other  radicals. 
"Common  Sense"  and  the  "Crisis"  had  been 
translated  into  French,  printed  and  widely  dis- 
tributed, and  inasmuch  as  Paine  had  been  a  party 
in  bringing  about  one  revolution,  and  had  helped 
carry  it  through  to  success,  his  counsel  and  advice 

327 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

were  sought.  A  few  short  weeks  in  France,  and 
Paine  having  secured  the  endorsement  of  the 
Academy  for  his  bridge,  went  over  to  England 
preparatory  to  sailing  for  America. 

Arriving  in  England,  Paine  found  that  his 
father  had  died  but  a  short  time  before.  His 
mother  was  living,  aged  ninety-one,  and  in  full 
possession  of  her  faculties.  The  meeting  of 
mother  and  son  was  full  of  tender  memories. 
And  the  mother,  while  not  being  able  to  follow 
her  gifted  son  in  all  of  his  reasoning  yet  fully 
sympathized  with  him  in  his  efforts  to  increase 
human  rights.  The  Quakers,  while  in  favor  of 
peace,  are  yet  revolutionaries,  for  their  policy  is 
one  of  protest. 

Paine  visited  the  old  Quaker  church  at  Strat- 
ford, and  there  seated  in  the  silence,  wrote  these 
words : 

When  we  consider,  for  the  feelings  of  nature  cannot 
be  dismissed,  the  calamities  of  war  and  the  miseries  it 
inflicts  upon  the  human  species,  the  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands,  of  every  age  and  sex  who  are  rendered 
wretched  by  the  event,  surely  there  is  something  in  the 
heart  of  man  that  calls  upon  him  to  think !  Surely  there 
is  some  tender  chord,  tuned  by  the  hand  of  the  Creator, 
that  still  struggles  to  emit  in  the  hearing  of  the  soul  a 
note  of  sorrowing  sympathy.  Let  it  then  be  heard,  and 
let  man  learn  to  feel  that  the  true  greatness  of  a  nation 
328 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

is  founded  on  principles  of  humanity,  and  not  on  con- 
quest. War  involves  in  its  progress  such  a  train  of 
unforeseen  and  unsupposed  circumstances,  such  a  com- 
bination of  foreign  matters,  that  no  human  wisdom  can 
calculate  the  end.  It  has  but  one  thing  certain,  and  that 
is  to  increase  taxes.  I  defend  the  cause  of  the  poor,  of 
the  manufacturer,  of  the  tradesman,  of  the  farmer,  and 
of  all  those  on  whom  the  real  burden  of  taxes  fall — but 
above  all,  I  defend  the  cause  of  women  and  children — of 
all  humanity. 

Edmund  Burke,  hearing  of  Paine's  presence 
in  England,  sent  for  him  to  come  to  his  house. 
Paine  accepted  the  invitation,  and  Burke  doubt- 
less got  a  few  interesting  chapters  of  history  at 
first  hand.  "  It  was  equal  to  meeting  Washing- 
ton and  perhaps  better,  for  Paine  is  more  of  a 
philosopher  than  his  chief,"  wrote  Burke  to  the 
elder  Pitt. 

Paine  saw  that  political  unrest  was  not  con- 
fined to  France — that  England  was  in  a  state  of 
evolution,  and  was  making  painful  efforts  to 
adapt  herself  to  the  progress  of  the  times.  Paine 
could  remember  a  time  when  in  England  women 
and  children  were  hanged  for  poaching;  when 
the  insane  were  publicly  whipped,  and  when,  if 
publicly  expressed,  a  doubt  concerning  the  truth 
of  Scripture  meant  exile  or  to  have  your  ears  cut 
off. 

t-*4  329 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

Now  he  saw  the  old  custom  reversed  and  the 
nobles  were  bowing  to  the  will  of  the  people.  It 
came  to  him  that  if  the  many  in  England  could  be 
educated,  the  Crown  having  so  recently  received 
its  rebuke  at  the  hands  of  the  American  colonies, 
that  a  great  stride  to  the  front  could  be  made. 
Englishmen  were  talking  about  their  rights. 
What  are  the  natural  rights  of  a  man?  He  be- 
gan to  set  down  his  thoughts  on  the  subject. 
These  soon  extended  themselves  into  chapters. 
The  chapters  grew  into  a  book — a  book  which  he 
hoped  would  peacefully  do  for  England  what 
"Common  Sense"  had  done  for  America.  This 
book,  the  "Rights  of  Man,"  was  written  at  the 
same  time  that  Mary  Wollstonecraft  was  writing 
her  book,  "  The  Rights  of  Women." 

In  London,  Paine  made  his  home  at  the  house 
of  Thomas  Rickman,  a  publisher.  Rickman  has 
given  us  an  intimate  glimpse  into  the  life  of  the 
patriot,  and  told  us  among  other  things  that 
Paine  was  five  feet  ten  inches  high,  of  an  athletic 
build,  and  very  fond  of  taking  long  walks. 
Among  the  visitors  at  Rickman's  house  who  came 
to  see  Paine  were  Dr.  Priestley,  Home  Tooke, 
Romney,  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  the  Duke  of 
Portland  and  Mary  Wollstonecraft.  It  seems 
very  probable  that  Mrs.  Wollstonecraft  read  to 
330 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Paine  parts  of  her  book,  for  very  much  in  his 
volume  parallels  hers,  not  only  in  the  thought  but 
in  actual  wording.  Whether  he  got  more  ideas 
from  her  than  she  got  from  him,  will  have  to  be 
left  to  the  higher  critics.  Certain  it  is  that  they 
were  in  mutual  accord,  and  that  Mrs.  Wollstone- 
craft  had  read  "Common  Sense"  and  the  "Rights 
of  Man"  to  a  purpose. 

It  was  too  much  to  expect  that  a  native  born 
Englishman  could  go  across  the  sea  to  British 
colonies  and  rebel  against  British  rule  and  then 
come  back  to  England  and  escape  censure. 
The  very  popularity  of  Paine  in  certain  high  cir- 
cles centered  attention  on  him.  And  Pitt,  who 
certainly  admired  Paine's  talents,  referred  to  his 
stay  in  England  as  "indelicate." 

England  is  the  freest  country  on  earth.  It  is 
her  rule  to  let  her  orators  unmuzzle  their  ignor- 
ance and  find  relief  in  venting  grievances  upon 
the  empty  air.  In  Hyde  Park  any  Sunday  one 
can  hear  the  same  sentiments  for  the  suppression 
of  which  Chicago  paid  in  her  Haymarket  mas- 
sacre. Grievances  expressed  are  half  cured,  but 
England  did  not  think  so  then.  The  change  came 
about  through  a  thirty  years'  fight,  which  Paine 
precipitated. 

The  patience  of  England  in  dealing  with 

331 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

Paine  was  extraordinary.  Paine  was  right,  but 
at  the  same  time  he  was  as  guilty  as  Theodore 
Parker  was  when  indicted  by  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia along  with  Ol'  John  Brown. 

The  "Rights  of  Man"  sold  from  the  very 
start,  and  in  a  year  fifty  thousand  copies  had  been 
called  for.  Unlike  his  other  books  this  one  was 
bringing  Paine  a  financial  return.  Newspaper 
controversies  followed,  and  Burke,  the  radical, 
found  himself  unable  to  go  the  lengths  to  which 
Paine  was  logically  trying  to  force  him. 

Paine  was  in  Paris,  on  a  visit,  on  that  memor- 
able day  which  saw  the  fall  of  the  Bastile.  Jef- 
ferson and  Adams  had  left  France  and  Paine 
was  regarded  as  the  authorized  representative  of 
America,  and  in  fact  he  had  been  doing  business 
in  France  for  Washington.  Lafayette  in  a  mo- 
ment of  exultant  enthusiasm  gave  the  key  of  the 
Bastile  to  Paine  to  present  to  Washington,  and 
as  every  American  schoolboy  knows,  this  famous 
key  to  a  sad  situation  now  hangs  on  its  carefully 
guarded  peg  at  Mt.  Vernon.  Lafayette  thought 
that  without  the  example  of  America,  France 
would  never  have  found  strength  to  throw  off  the 
rule  of  kings,  and  so  America  must  have  the  key 
to  the  detested  door  that  was  now  unhinged  for- 
ever. "And  to  me,"  said  Lafayette,  "America 
332 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

without  her  Thomas  Paine  is  unthinkable."  The 
words  were  carried  to  England  and  there  did 
Paine  no  especial  good.  But  England  was  now 
giving  Paine  a  living — there  was  a  market  for 
the  product  of  his  pen — and  he  was  being  adver- 
tised both  by  his  loving  friends  and  his  rabid 
enemies. 

Paine  had  many  admirers  in  France,  and  in 
some  ways  he  felt  more  at  home  there  than  in 
England.  He  spoke  and  wrote  French.  How- 
ever, no  man  ever  wrote  well  in  more  than  one 
language  although  he  might  speak  intelligently 
in  several ;  and  the  orator  using  a  foreign  tongue 
never  reaches  fluidity.  "  Where  liberty  is,  there 
is  my  home,"  said  Franklin.  And  Paine  an- 
swered, "  Where  liberty  is  not,  there  is  my  home." 
The  newspaper  attacks  had  shown  Paine  that  he 
had  not  made  himself  clear  on  all  points,  and  like 
every  worthy  orator  who  considers,  when  too  late, 
all  the  great  things  he  intended  to  say,  he  was 
stung  with  the  thought  of  all  the  brilliant  things 
he  might  have  said,  but  had  not. 

And  so  straightway  he  began  to  prepare  Part 
II  of  the  "Rights  of  Man."  The  book  was 
printed  in  cheap  form  similar  to  "Common 
Sense,"  and  was  beginning  to  be  widely  read  by 
working  men. 

333 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

"  Philosophy  is  all  right,"  said  Pitt,  "but  it 
should  be  taught  to  philosophical  people.  If 
this  thing  is  kept  up,  London  will  re-enact  the 
scenes  of  Paris." 

Many  Englishmen  thought  the  same.  The 
official  order  was  given,  and  all  of  Paine's  books 
that  could  be  f  ound  were  seized  and  publicly  used 
for  a  bonfire  by  the  official  hangman.  Paine  was 
burned  in  effigy  in  many  cities,  the  charge  being 
made  that  he  was  one  of  the  men  who  had  brought 
about  the  French  Revolution.  With  better  truth 
it  could  have  been  stated  that  he  was  the  man, 
with  the  help  of  George  III,  who  brought  about 
the  American  Revolution.  The  terms  of  peace 
made  between  England  and  the  colonies  granted 
amnesty  to  Paine  and  his  colleagues  in  rebellion, 
but  his  acts  could  not  be  forgotten,  even  though 
they  were  nominally  forgiven.  This  new  fire- 
brand of  a  book  was  really  too  much,  and  the  au- 
thor got  a  left-handed  compliment  from  the 
Premier  on  his  literary  style — books  to  burn! 

Four  French  provinces  nominated  him  to 
represent  them  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  He 
accepted  the  solicitations  of  Calais,  and  took  his 
seat  for  that  province. 

He  knew  Danton,  Mirabeau,  Marat  and 
Robespierre.  Danton  and  Robespierre  respected 
334 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

him  and  often  advised  with  him.  Mirabeau  and 
Marat  were  in  turn  suspicious  and  afraid  of  him. 
The  times  were  feverish,  and  Paine,  a  radical  at 
heart,  here  was  regarded  as  a  conservative.  In 
America  the  enemy  stood  out  to  be  counted;  the 
division  was  clear  and  sharp,  but  here  the  danger 
was  in  the  hearts  of  the  French  themselves. 

Paine  argued  that  of  all  things  we  must  con- 
quer our  own  spirits,  and  in  this  new  birth  of  free- 
dom not  imitate  the  cruelty  and  harshness  of  roy- 
alty against  which  we  protest.  "  We  will  kill  the 
King,  but  not  the  man,"  were  his  words.  But 
with  all  of  his  tact  and  logic  he  could  not  make 
his  colleagues  see  that  to  abolish  the  kingly  office, 
not  to  kill  the  individual,  was  the  thing  desired. 

So  Louis,  who  helped  free  the  American  col- 
onies, went  to  the  block,  and  his  enemy,  Danton, 
a  little  later,  did  the  same.  Mirabeau,  the  boast- 
er, had  died  peacefully  in  his  bed;  Robespierre, 
who  signed  the  death  warrant  of  Paine,  "to  save 
his  own  head,"  died  the  death  he  had  reserved  for 
Paine;  Marat,  "the  terrible  dwarf,"  horribly  hon- 
est, fearfully  sincere,  jealous  and  afraid  of  Paine, 
hinting  that  he  was  the  secret  emissary  of  Eng- 
land, was  stabbed  to  his  death  by  a  woman's  hand. 

And  amid  the  din,  escape  being  impossible, 

335 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

and  also  undesirable,  Thomas  Paine  wrote  the 
first  part  of  the  "Age  of  Reason." 

The  second  part  was  written  in  the  Luxem- 
bourg prison,  under  the  shadow  of  the  guillotine. 
But  life  is  only  a  sentence  of  death,  with  an  in- 
definite reprieve.  Prison,  to  Paine,  was  not  all 
gloom. 

The  jailer,  Benoit,  was  good-natured  and 
cherished  his  unwilling  guests  as  his  children. 
When  they  left  for  freedom  or  for  death,  he 
kissed  them,  and  gave  each  a  little  ring  in  which 
was  engraved  the  single  word,  "  Mizpah."  But 
finally  Benoit,  himself,  was  led  away,  and  there 
was  none  to  kiss  his  cheek,  nor  to  give  him  a  ring 
and  cry  cheerily,  "  Good  luck,  Citizen  Comrade! 
Until  we  meet  again!" 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  by  the  admirers  of 
Thomas  Paine  about  the  abuse  and  injustice 
heaped  upon  his  name,  and  the  prevarications 
concerning  his  life,  by  press  and  pulpit  and  those 
who  profess  a  life  of  love,  meekness  and  humility. 
But  we  should  remember  that  all  this  vilification 
was  really  the  tribute  that  mediocrity  pays  gen- 
ius. To  escape  censure  one  only  has  to  move  with 
the  mob,  think  with  the  mob,  do  nothing  that  the 
mob  does  not  do — then  you  are  safe.  The  sa- 
336 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

viors  of  the  world  have  usually  been  crucified  be- 
tween thieves,  despised,  forsaken,  spit  upon, 
rejected  of  men.  In  their  lives  they  seldom  had  a 
place  where  they  could  safely  lay  their  weary 
heads,  and  dying,  their  bodies  were  either  hidden 
in  another  man's  tomb  or  else  subjected  to  the 
indignities  which  the  living  man  failed  to  sur- 
vive: torn  limb  from  limb,  eyeless,  headless,  arm- 
less, burned  and  the  ashes  scattered  or  sunk  in  the 
sea. 

And  the  peculiar  thing  is  that  most  of  this 
frightful  inhumanity  was  the  work  of  so-called 
good  men,  the  pillars  of  society,  the  respectable 
element,  what  we  are  pleased  to  call  "our  first 
citizens,"  instigated  by  the  Church  that  happened 
to  be  power.  Socrates  poisoned,  Aristides  ostra- 
cized, Aristotle  fleeing  for  his  life,  Jesus  crucified, 
Paul  beheaded,  Peter  crucified  head  downward, 
Savonarola  martryred,  Spinoza  hunted,  tracked 
and  cursed,  and  an  order  issued  that  no  man 
should  speak  to  him  nor  supply  him  food  or  shel- 
ter, Bruno  burned,  Galileo  imprisoned,  Huss, 
Wyclif,  Latimer  and  Tyndale  used  for  kindling 
— all  this  in  the  name  of  religion,  institutional  re- 
ligion, the  one  thing  that  has  caused  more  misery, 
heartaches,  bloodshed,  war,  than  all  other  causes 
combined.    Leo  Tolstoi  says,  "  Love,  truth,  com- 

337 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

passion,  service,  sympathy,  tenderness  exist  in  the 
hearts  of  men,  and  are  the  essence  of  religion,  but 
try  to  encompass  these  things  in  an  institution 
and  you  get  a  church — and  the  Church  stands 
for  and  has  always  stood  for  coercion,  intolerance, 
injustice  and  cruelty." 

No  man  ever  lifted  up  his  voice  or  pen  in  a 
criticism  against  love,  truth,  compassion,  service, 
sympathy  and  tenderness.  And  if  he  had,  do  you 
think  that  love,  truth,  compassion,  service,  sym- 
pathy, tenderness  would  feel  it  necessary  to  go 
after  him  with  stocks,  chains,  thumbscrews  and 
torches  ? 

You  cannot  imagine  it. 

Then  what  is  it  goes  after  men  who  criticize 
the  prevailing  religion  and  show  where  it  can  be 
improved  upon?  Why,  it  is  hate,  malice,  ven- 
geance, jealousy,  injustice,  intolerance,  cruelty, 
fear. 

The  reason  the  Church  does  not  visit  upon  its 
critics  to-day  the  same  cruelties  that  it  did  three 
hundred  years  ago  is  simply  because  it  has  not 
the  power.  Incorporate  a  beautiful  sentiment 
and  hire  a  man  to  preach  and  defend  it,  and  then 
buy  property  and  build  costly  buildings  in  which 
to  preach  your  beautiful  sentiment,  and  if  the 
gentleman  who  preaches  your  beautiful  sentiment 
338 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

is  criticized  he  will  fight  and  suppress  his  critics 
if  he  can.  And  the  reason  he  fights  his  critics 
is  not  because  he  believes  the  beautiful  sentiment 
will  suffer,  but  because  he  fears  losing  his  position 
which  carries  with  it  ease,  honors  and  food,  and  a 
parsonage  and  a  church,  taxes  free. 

Just  as  soon  as  the  gentleman  employed  to 
defend  and  preach  the  beautiful  sentiment  grows 
fearful  about  the  permanency  of  his  position,  and 
begins  to  have  gooseflesh  when  a  critic's  name  is 
mentioned,  the  beautiful  sentiment  evaporates  out 
of  the  window,  and  exists  only  in  that  place  for- 
ever as  a  name.  The  Church  is  ever  a  menace  to 
all  beautiful  sentiments,  because  it  is  an  economic 
institution,  and  the  chief  distributor  of  degrees, 
titles  and  honors. 

Anything  that  threatens  to  curtail  its  power 
it  is  bound  to  oppose  and  suppress,  if  it  can.  Men 
who  cease  useful  work  in  order  to  devote  them- 
selves to  religion,  are  right  in  the  same  class  with 
women  who  quit  work  to  make  a  business  of  love. 
Men  who  know  history  and  humanity  and  have 
reasonably  open  minds  are  not  surprised  at  the 
treatment  visited  upon  Paine  by  the  country  he 
had  so  much  benefited.  Superstition  and  hallu- 
cination are  really  one  thing,  and  fanaticism, 
which  is  mental  obsession,  easily  becomes  acute 

339 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

and  the  whirling  dervish  runs  amuck  at  sight  of  a 
man  whose  religious  opinions  are  different  from 
his  own. 

Paine  got  off  very  easy ;  he  lived  his  life,  and 
expressed  himself  freely  to  the  last.  Men  who 
discover  continents  are  destined  to  die  in  chains. 
That  is  the  price  they  pay  for  the  privilege  of 
sailing  on,  and  on,  and  on,  and  on. 

Said  Paine: 

The  moral  duty  of  a  man  consists  in  imitating  the 
moral  goodness  and  beneficence  of  God  manifested  in  the 
creation,  toward  all  creatures.  That  seeing  as  we  daily 
do,  the  goodness  of  God  to  all  men,  it  is  an  example  call- 
ing upon  all  men  to  practise  toward  each  other,  and 
consequently  that  everything  of  persecution  and  revenge 
between  man  and  man,  and  everything  of  cruelty  to 
animals  is  a  violation  of  moral  duty. 

The  pen  of  Paine  made  the  sword  of  Wash- 
ington possible.  And  as  Paine's  book,  "Common 
Sense,"  broke  the  power  of  Great  Britain  in 
America,  and  the  "Rights  of  Man"  gave  free 
speech  and  a  free  press  to  England,  so  did  the 
"Age  of  Reason"  give  pause  to  the  juggernaut  of 
orthodoxy.  Thomas  Paine  was  the  legitimate 
ancestor  of  Hosea  Ballou  who  founded  the  Uni- 
versalist  Church,  and  also  of  Theodore  Parker 
who  made  Unitarianism  in  America  an  intellec- 
tual torch. 
340 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

Channing,  Ripley,  Bartol,  Martineau,  Froth- 
ingham,  Hale,  Curtis,  Collyer,  Swing,  Thomas, 
Conway,  Leonard,  Savage,  Crapsey,  yes — even 
Emerson  and  Thoreau,  were  spiritual  children, 
all,  of  Thomas  Paine.  He  blazed  the  way  and 
made  it  possible  for  men  to  preach  the  sweet  rea- 
sonableness of  reason.  He  was  the  pioneer  in  a 
jungle  of  superstition.  Thomas  Paine  was  the 
real  founder  of  the  so-called  Liberal  Denomina- 
tions and  the  business  of  the  liberal  denominations 
has  not  been  to  become  great,  powerful  and  popu- 
lar, but  to  make  all  other  denominations  more 
liberal.  So  to-day  in  all  so-called  orthodox  pul- 
pits one  can  hear  the  ideas  of  Paine,  Henry 
Frank  and  B.  Fay  Mills  expounded. 


341 


A  SQUARE  DEAL* 
By  Makilla  M.  Ricker 

IN  the  "Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris,"  by  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt,  on  page  289  is  the  statement 
that  Thomas  Paine  was  a  "filthy,  little  atheist." 
This  was  written  in  1896,  and  in  the  last  edition 
of  the  book,  printed  in  1906,  the  soft  orthodox 
impeachment  still  remains,  although  Mr.  Roose- 
velt has  been  repeatedly  reminded  since  the  work 
was  first  issued  of  his  indelicacy. 

When  we  cannot  answer  a  man's  arguments, 
all  is  not  lost,  we  can  still  call  him  vile  names. 
The  fishwives  supply  us  plenty  of  precedent,  and 
the  traditions  of  Billingsgate  still  survive. 

Roosevelt  is  a  Presbyterian — Paine  was  some- 
thing else.  Paine  criticized  the  faith  of  John 
Knox  and  John  Calvin,  so  Roosevelt,  who  be- 
lieves in  the  religion  of  John  Knox  and  John 
Calvin,  calls  Paine  "little"  also  "filthy";  and 
other  savory  epithets,  which  I  dare  not  reproduce, 
are  applied  to  those  who  reverence  the  memory 
of  men  who  lived  and  labored  to  make  other  men 
free. 

Paine  was  not  "little,"  mentally  or  physically. 

'Reprinted    by    permission    from    The    Philistine,    September, 
1907.— Ed. 

342 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

In  height  he  was  five  feet,  ten,  and  the  man  who 
brings  against  him  the  damning  indictment  of 
being  little  is  five  feet,  five.  Only  in  girth  does 
Roosevelt  surpass  Paine. 

As  for  being  "filthy,"  Paine  was  ascetic  in  his 
manner  of  life  and  had  the  Englishman's  passion 
for  his  "tub,"  to  such  a  degree  that  he  was  ridi- 
culed for  his  cold-water  habit  by  his  soldier 
comrades. 

The  third  charge,  that  of  being  an  "atheist," 
not  being  a  matter  of  physique  or  bodily  habit,  is 
more  easily  controverted.  Seven  times  in  the 
"Age  of  Reason"  Paine  says,  "I  believe  in  one 
God."  The  closing  paragraph  of  the  book  says, 
"The  creation  we  behold  is  the  ever  existing  Word 
of  God." 

And  yet  Mr.  Roosevelt  still  insists  that 
Thomas  Paine  did  not  believe  in  God,  and  more- 
over, adds  the  gratuity  that  the  man  was  little, 
also  filthy. 

In  this  book  the  author  backs  himself  up 
by  references  to  a  certain  "Isaac  Roosevelt." 
Neither  Bancroft,  Greene,  the  "Encyclopedia 
Britannica"  Appleton's  nor  the  "Century  Dic- 
tionary" mention  "Isaac  Roosevelt."  He  is  evi- 
dently a  mythical  Mrs.  Harris  or  01*  Bill  Jones, 
conjured  forth  in  a  psychic  moment  as  a  happy 

343 


WRITINGS    OF    THOMAS    PAINE 

thought  by  the  versatile  author.  Of  course  the 
writer  might  have  referred  to  Thomas  Jefferson 
or  Benjamin  Franklin,  both  of  whom  paid  high 
tribute  to  the  genius  of  Paine,  but  instead  he  rings 
in  Isaac,  who  has  no  parts  nor  dimensions,  being 
neither  little  nor  filthy,  whom  no  one  knows  or 
even  heard  of,  who  wrote  nothing  and  said  noth- 
ing, being  but  a  wraith  of  the  figment  of  Theo- 
dore's pigment.  To  such  extremities  does  a  re- 
ligion of  hate  and  prejudice  often  drive  even  very 
excellent  men. 

****** 

"Tom"  Paine  was  a  straw  man  made  by 
frightened  orthodoxy  to  save  its  religion.  This 
uncanny  effigy  was  set  up  in  churches  to  terrify 
the  timid  and  weak  minded.  But  it  has  had  its 
day.  This  scarecrow  has  been  picked  to  pieces 
by  the  fingers  of  invisible  air.  The  last  rag  is 
gone;  the  last  straw  is  dust  and  the  cross-sticks 
on  which  this  scarecrow  hung  would  not  be  pur- 
chased by  a  Roman  Catholic  junk  dealer  in 
religious  relics.  And  so  to-day,  let  us  exclaim, 
"Tom  Paine  is  dead.     Long  live  Thomas  Paine." 

The  only  thing  that  ever  came  back  from  the 

grave  that  we  know  of  was  a  lie.     The  lies  which 

professed  followers  of  the  gentle  Christ  told  of 

Paine  were  killed  and  buried  hundreds  of  times, 

344 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

but  they  break  the  bonds  of  death  now  and  then 
and  appear  in  their  ghastly  robes  in  the  pulpits, 
just  as  though  they  were  the  white  garments  of 
truth.  But  a  lie  about  an  infidel  no  longer  re- 
ceives credit  as  an  argument  in  favor  of  Chris- 
tianity. Had  Thomas  Paine  been  as  cruel  as 
John  Calvin,  as  wicked  and  vile  as  some  of  the 
popes,  as  merciless  as  Jonathan  Edwards,  instead 
of  being  one  of  the  greatest  and  noblest  of  man- 
kind, the  doctrine  of  vicarious  atonement  would 
be  just  as  immoral,  the  dogma  of  endless  punish- 
ment just  as  barbarous,  and  a  hell  for  unbelievers 
just  as  hideous  a  thought.  It  is  unnecessary  for 
an  honest  man  to  ever  again  misrepresent 
Thomas  Paine. 

The  time  has  been  when  the  person  who 
defended  the  author  of  the  "Age  of  Reason" 
offered  himself  as  a  target  for  religious  abuse, 
but  the  time  has  come  when  to  refuse  to  defend 
Thomas  Paine  is  to  confess  that  one  is  a  coward, 
a  knave  or  grossly  ignorant.  A  just  man  is 
applauded,  a  generous  man  is  loved,  but  a  man 
who  can  give  himself,  all  he  has,  and  all  he  can 
do  for  the  good  of  his  race,  deserves  immortality 
in  human  hearts. 

I  have  looked  over  the  names  of  those  men 
who  left  their  native  land  to  cast  their  lot  with 
i-85  345 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS   PAINE 

that  band  of  Pilgrims  who  sought  these  shores, 
that  they  might  have  freedom  to  worship  their 
God  and  persecute  their  fellow  man,  and  also,  the 
list  of  those  who  cast  their  lot  with  the  descen- 
dants of  that  band  of  Pilgrims,  and  I  say  now 
and  here  that  the  most  valuable  emigrant  that 
ever  came  to  America  was  Thomas  Paine.  He 
did  more  for  our  country  than  every  priest  and 
every  parson  that  has  touched  our  soil.  He  left 
his  home  to  help  make  a  home  for  the  oppressed 
of  all  the  world.  He  came  at  the  right  time,  he 
spoke  the  right  word,  he  had  the  right  spirit. 

I  have  no  faith  in  divinely  guided  stars,  in 
angels  who  direct  human  affairs,  or  in  what  is 
called  "Providence."  Providence  to  me  is  good 
luck,  a  happy  accident,  as  there  is  as  much  bad 
luck  as  good  in  this  wayward  world  of  ours ;  any 
theory  of  Providence  makes  God  partial  and 
whimsical.  But  if  fortuitous  circumstances  ever 
furnished  a  foundation  for  faith  in  divine  inter- 
pretation, surely  those  attending  the  triumphant 
career  of  Thomas  Paine  must  be  regarded  as 
notable  examples. 

No  one  knows  what  power  plants  in  the  hu- 
man mind  the  seeds  of  greatness.  We  like  to 
think  that  great  sons  had  great  mothers,  and  that 
loving  hearts  endowed  their  offspring  with  their 
346 


LIFE   AND    APPRECIATIONS 

own  rare  natures.  But  there  have  been  children 
of  the  world  who  surpassed  fathers  and  mothers, 
who  contradicted  heredity  and  environment  and 
who  in  their  bold  undertakings  turned  away  from 
all  instruction  and  defied  all  authority. 

In  1774  Paine  was  living  in  England;  he  was 
a  man  of  humble  parentage,  a  man  poor  and 
unknown  who  had  acted  no  brilliant  part  on  the 
stage  of  life,  a  man  whose  experience  had  not 
fitted  him  to  grasp  great  political  principles 
or  to  solve  important  political  problems,  but 
who,  within  one  year,  contributed  to  the  world 
the  greatest  work  on  human  liberty  and  human 
government  that  had  come  from  the  human  brain. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Paine's  "Common 
Sense"  made  a  nation  and  that  nation  to-day 
the  greatest  on  earth.  From  being  one  of  the 
most  obscure  men  on  the  globe  in  1774,  Thomas 
Paine  became  one  of  the  most  influential  in  1775. 
The  world  delights  in  martial  heroes,  in  men  on 
horseback,  in  swords  and  armor  and  deadly 
weapons,  and  we  yet  see  the  stream  of  destiny 
following  the  tide  of  war,  but  on  the  canvas  of 
history  I  can  see  a  man  with  a  pen  in  his  hand 
who  was  a  grander  hero  than  ever  led  a  charge  on 
the  field  of  battle. 

Ink  has  made  more  fate  than  has  blood  and 

347 


WRITINGS    OF   THOMAS    PAINE 

the  boldness  of  Thomas  Paine  in  denouncing 
tyranny  and  wrong  makes  a  picture  of  bravery 
which  outshines  in  heroic  splendor  all  the  deeds 
of  rifle  and  sword.  The  man  who  one  hundred 
years  ago  dared  to  speak  the  truth,  faced  not 
only  poverty  and  disgrace,  but  in  many  instances 
death  as  well.  To  defy  the  King  was  more  dan- 
gerous than  to  defy  God,  and  when  Paine  char- 
acterized George  III  as  that  "Royal  British 
Brute"  he  made  a  halter  for  his  neck,  had  the 
colonies  not  won  independence. 

I  cannot  open  the  book  of  this  man's  life  with 
cold,  indifferent  hands,  nor  read  his  burning 
words  without  my  blood  answering  to  his.  To 
me,  Thomas  Paine  has  been  not  only  a  man  of 
destiny,  but  a  man  who  made  destiny.  Nothing 
could  induce  him  to  cut  one  inch  from  the  stature 
of  his  manhood.  A  conviction  was  as  sacred  to 
him  as  an  idol  to  its  worshiper.  He  protected 
his  thought  with  all  the  chivalry  of  a  knight  of 
old,  who  fought  for  the  hand  of  the  woman  he 
loved;  as  a  mother  watches  over  her  crippled 
child.  So  Paine  was  devoted  to  what  he  believed 
to  be  right. 

Thomas  Paine  did  not  ask  a  man  about  his 
nationality,  his  color,  or  his  religion;  to  him  a 
black  face  was  not  a  mark  of  slavery,  nor  an 
348 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

honest  belief  a  badge  of  degradation.  He  knew 
no  rank  higher  than  manhood.  Titles  were  de- 
ceptions. Every  king  was  an  impostor,  every 
noble  a  person  obtaining  honor  under  false  pre- 
tenses. He  was  as  democratic  as  nature,  as 
impartial  as  rain  or  sunshine.  He  wanted  a 
government  where  those  who  held  office  should 
be  no  higher  than  those  they  served.  He  wanted 
every  man  who  was  elected  to  position  high  or 
low,  to  represent  the  people,  to  stand  for  the 
people,  and  to  work  for  the  people.  He  wanted 
to  strike  the  bauble  from  the  head  of  every 
monarch  on  earth,  and  say:  "If  manhood 
be  not  written  across  your  brow,  you  deserve  no 
respect  from  honest  men."  Every  throne  has 
robbed  the  world,  every  altar  has  enslaved 
it,  and  Thomas  Paine  knew  that  any  gov- 
ernment which  fostered  superstition  or  al- 
lowed tyranny  would  trample  upon  human 
rights  and  lead  reason  to  the  gallows.  He  looked 
out  upon  the  world  with  pity  for  the  poor  and 
lowly,  with  sympathy  for  the  toilers,  but  with 
hatred  for  the  thrones  of  power.  I  know  of  no 
one  who  has  placed  duty  to  mankind  higher  than 
did  he.  In  whatever  he  did  he  obliterated  self. 
He  sought  for  no  advantage  over  others,  and  if 

349 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

a  man  was  endowed  by  nature  with  superior 
ability,  he  saw  in  such  power  only  a  greater 
opportunity  to  bless  his  race.  He  never  entered 
the  wild  race  for  money;  never  prostituted  the 
power  of  his  mighty  brain;  never  sold  his 
influence. 

Thomas  Paine  was  never  a  traitor  to  himself. 
What  did  this  man  hate?  Falsehood,  wrong, 
tyranny.  What  did  he  love?  Justice,  truth,  right 
and  liberty.  The  dominating  inspiration  of 
Paine's  mind  was  love  of  freedom.  He  cried  out 
wherever  he  went,  "Liberty,  Liberty  and  yet 
again  Liberty!"  In  the  land  where  he  was  born 
there  was  no  such  thing  taught  as  the  equality  of 
mankind.  All  the  springs  of  freedom  in  Great 
Britain  were  dry.  The  birds  could  sing  of  lib- 
erty, but  man  was  dumb. 

Thomas  Paine  dreamed  the  most  glorious 
dream  of  human  freedom  that  ever  enchanted  the 
mind  of  man;  fairer  and  sweeter  than  lay  under 
the  broken  marbles  of  Greece;  brighter  and  bet- 
ter than  was  buried  with  the  dead  eagles  of  Rome. 
We  know  not  what  gave  birth  to  this  dream  in  his 
soul.  The  atmosphere  of  his  early  life  has  faded 
from  the  sky.  The  key  to  his  youth  is  lost.  He 
had  seen  and  heard  little  of  the  world.  He  had 
lived  mostly  in  the  hidden  realm  of  thought. 
350 


LIFE   AND   APPRECIATIONS 

How  the  hope  of  freedom  for  all  mankind  gained 
entrance  to  his  mind  no  one  can  tell ;  what  rivers 
fed  it,  what  suns  nourished  it,  what  stars  looked 
down  upon  it  by  night  can  never  be  learned.  He 
was  a  genius  of  solitude.  His  mind  nursed  sus- 
tenance from  the  heart  of  the  universe.  The 
wrongs  he  read  of  made  him  long  for  justice;  the 
falsehoods  he  heard  turned  his  heart  to  truth,  the 
oppression  about  him  kindled  liberty  within  him. 

His  great  dream  for  mankind  came  from  his 
love  of  man.  He  looked  upon  the  King  of  Eng- 
land as  his  personal  enemy,  and  hence  as  the 
enemy  of  all  humanity.  It  was  the  taking  of  all 
the  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  his  fellow  beings  to 
himself  that  made  him  touch  to  life  those  "Truths 
that  wake  to  perish  never." 

Paine  lived  in  a  land  where  justice  was  in 
the  grave,  where  right  was  led  to  the  scaffold, 
where  liberty  had  never  been  born;  in  a  land 
where  honesty  went  barefoot;  and  where  vice 
held  all  the  trumps.  And  yet,  in  this  dismal 
environment,  Paine  saw  a  vision  of  human 
equality,  a  country  where  a  king  was  not  wanted, 
and  a  pope  was  not  needed;  a  country  where 
the  people  were  their  own  rulers,  and  where 
manhood  was  the  brightest  crown.  He  saw  in 
America  the  land  of  his  dream.     In  October, 

351 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

1774,  he  sailed  for  these  shores  and,  "By  his 
vision  splendid  was  on  his  way  attended." 
Thomas  Paine  did  not  come  to  America  to  look 
upon  some  wonderful  picture  painted  by  a  fa- 
mous artist,  or  to  see  some  marvelous  figure 
wrought  from  a  marble  block  by  a  sculptor's 
genius,  or  to  gaze  upon  some  spot  sacred  to  relig- 
ious faith,  but  he  came  to  see  if  in  the  American 
colonies  an  altar  of  freedom  could  be  raised,  and 
if  there  were  a  possibility  of  establishing  a  gov- 
ernment which  would  protect  human  rights. 

He  came  here  to  find  what  he  could  not  find  in 
England,  what  he  could  not  find  in  Europe,  what 
he  could  not  find  in  the  Old  World — a  land  which 
would  give  to  man  the  liberty  to  be  a  man  and 
which  would  respect  manhood  more  than  titles 
and  coronets.  He  came  here  to  find  a  new  world, 
to  found  a  new  government,  to  help  make  a  coun- 
try where  all  men  should  be  equal,  to  help  found 
a  nation  which  would  be  the  monarch  of  the  earth, 
as  the  eagle  is  of  the  air. 

When  Paine  reached  our  shores  he  found  the 
people  in  rebellion  against  the  King.  The  yeast 
of  discontent  was  working  and  the  land  was  pre- 
paring to  resist  oppression.  The  clay  was  ready 
for  the  hand  of  the  potter.  One  of  the  first 
efforts  of  Paine  was  an  essay  condemning 
852 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

negro  slavery  and  advocating  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  slave.  Before  Lexington  Green  was 
stained  by  patriot  blood,  the  first  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  was  formed  in  Philadelphia. 
Had  Paine's  counsel  been  heeded,  there  would 
have  been  no  slaves  in  the  United  States,  and 
civil  war  would  not  have  dug  a  grave  in  our  soil 
or  broken  a  heart  in  our  homes.  The  independ- 
ence of  the  American  colonies  was  not  sought  by 
the  men  who  emptied  British  tea  into  the  waters 
of  Boston  Harbor,  nor  was  that  the  purpose 
of  the  minutemen  who  faced  the  redcoats  in  the 
Concord  fight,  nor  did  the  hope  of  independence 
win  the  victory  of  Bunker  Hill.  Only  a  few  men 
in  1775  believed  that  separation  from  England 
was  probable  and  no  one  publicly  advocated  it. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  Thomas  Paine  set  to 
work  to  show  the  American  people  that  the  hour 
had  come  for  them  to  rid  the  land  of  monarchy. 
The  bold  argument  of  Paine  for  national  inde- 
pendence could  not  be  answered,  and  within  a 
few  months  it  had  converted  a  continent.  On 
the  fourth  of  July  following  its  publication  the 
colonies  proclaimed  their  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, "  Common  Sense"  flashed  across  the 
political  sky  of  the  New  World  with  a  brilliancy 
that  won  admiration  and  wonder  from  all.     No 

353 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

true  estimate  can  be  made  of  the  mighty  influence 
which  the  ideas  in  this  pamphlet  have  had,  and 
are  destined  to  have  upon  the  human  race. 

Paine  stands  between  two  epochs:  the  epoch 
of  Kings  and  the  epoch  of  Man.  To  the  King 
he  said,  "  The  night  is  coming."  To  Man  he  said, 
"  The  day  is  dawning;  tyranny  must  leave  the 
earth,  freedom  and  equality  will  possess  it." 
Paine  did  not  say  to  Men,  fall  upon  your  knees 
and  implore  God's  help,  but,  stand  upon  your 
feet  and  help  yourselves.  Muskets  did  better  exe- 
cution during  the  Revolutionary  War  than  did 
prayers.  Paine  did  not  say,  "  Thus  saith  the 
Lord,"  for  he  had  something  better  to  say  than 
was  ever  said  by  the  Lord.  He  cried  to  his  fel- 
low men  out  of  his  mighty  passion  for  liberty  to 
rise  and  drive  British  oppression  back  over  the 
seas. 

One  has  only  to  read  the  writings  of  Paine  to 
learn  that  the  man  who  wields  a  big  pen  does 
humanity  a  nobler  service  than  a  man  who  wields 
a  big  stick.  Reverence  has  chained  the  mind  to 
antiquity,  and  the  lips  of  eulogy  have  bestowed 
the  highest  praise  upon  the  ancients,  but  Plato 
and  Socrates,  Seneca  and  Epictetus,  Paul  and 
Jesus  combined  did  not  do  for  human  life  on 
earth  so  much  as  did  Thomas  Paine.  I  know  that 
854 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

my  words  sound  extravagant  to  the  popular  ear, 
but  the  philosophy  which  made  the  Athens  of 
Pericles  and  Aspasia  is  as  dead  as  its  sculptured 
gods ;  the  morals  which  built  up  the  Rome  of  the 
Caesars  are  embalmed  in  a  few  rose- jars  of  litera- 
ture ;  and  the  gospel  which  conquered  Egypt  and 
Syria  is  powerless  before  the  truths  of  modern 
science;  while  in  the  words  of  Paine  sleep  giants 
that  will  yet  vanquish  every  foe  of  man. 

A  nation  is  no  stronger  than  its  citizens. 
Thomas  Paine's  work  was  to  build  man  strong 
and  great  that  the  nation  might  be  strong  and 
great.  The  rights  of  man  are  to  be  defended,  not 
the  word  of  God.  When  men  have  been  corrupt, 
governments  have  decayed.  The  salvation  of  the 
race  is  not  in  gods  or  saviors,  or  bibles  or  churches, 
but  in  the  perpetuation  of  freedom  and  equality 
among  men  and  women. 

The  tree  of  liberty  had  blossomed  a  thousand 
times,  and  the  perfume  of  its  flowers  filled  the  air 
with  the  glad  promise  of  its  ripened  fruit,  but  not 
until  the  Stars  and  Stripes  waved  over  America's 
soil,  was  political  freedom  a  fact.  Thomas  Paine 
did  more  than  any  other  man  to  put  the  stars  on 
our  flag  and  to  give  that  flag  to  the  breeze.  And 
what  he  did  was  done  without  expectation  of  pay. 
When  he  had  finished  "Common  Sense,"  he  did 

355 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

not  ask  the  colonies  to  buy  it.  His  strongest 
convictions  were  in  that  work,  his  dearest  hopes 
had  been  written  into  its  words,  and  these  convic- 
tions and  those  hopes  were  too  precious  to  be 
bartered  for  money. 

Paine  had  no  love  of  freedom  to  sell.  This 
man  who  started  out  to  give  his  life  to  freedom 
presented  to  the  colonies  all  his  rights  in  his 
pamphlets  and  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars were  realized  from  the  sales.  Let  us  draw 
the  picture  of  this  man  in  January,  1775:  A  self- 
exiled  Englishman  living  in  Philadelphia  with 
only  a  few  acquaintances,  receiving  a  salary  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year  for  editing 
a  magazine.  He  had  a  head  full  of  good  ideas 
and  a  heart  full  of  good  feeling.  Under  his  arm 
he  carried  the  manuscript  of  his  first  book.  He 
had  read  portions  of  his  work  to  the  few  friends 
who  urged  him  to  publish  his  thoughts.  This  man 
who  had  spent  months  in  the  preparation  of  his 
work  took  it  to  a  printer  without  thought  of  per- 
sonal gain.  He  only  wished  that  the  people 
would  read  his  book  and  carry  its  principles  to 
the  heights  of  victory. 

Thomas  Paine  in  writing  and  giving  "Com- 
mon Sense"  to  the  colonies  made  the  noblest  and 
best  contribution  to  the  cause  of  freedom  in 
356 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

America.  During  the  seven  years'  war  which  the 
revolutionists  waged  against  Great  Britain,  Paine 
contributed  from  time  to  time  thirteen  numbers 
of  his  "Crisis."  The  first,  which  was  printed  in 
December,  1776,  commenced  with  this  memor- 
able sentence,  "  These  are  the  times  that  try  men's 
souls,"  and  the  last  which  appeared  on  April  19, 
1783,  opened  with  these  words  "The  times  that 
try  men's  souls  are  over." 

Paine's  words  put  strength  into  men's  arms 
and  courage  into  their  hearts,  but  not  a  dollar 
into  his  own  pocket.  All  he  wrote  in  America 
was  given  for  her  freedom.  He  gave  his  services 
as  the  night  gives  its  dew,  as  the  flower  gives  its 
perfume,  as  the  sun  gives  its  light. 

In  1787,  Paine  sailed  for  England,  intending 
to  be  absent  about  one  year.  It  was  fifteen  years 
before  he  again  saw  the  land  of  his  dream.  He 
was  intensely  interested  in  the  struggle  for  liberty 
which  was  going  on  in  France  and  studied  its 
every  phase.  Soon  the  struggle  became  a  revolu- 
tion, and  the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world  were 
watching  for  the  outcome. 

In  1790,  Edmund  Burke,  the  foremost  orator 
of  England  published  his  "Reflections  on  the 
Revolution  in  France."  It  was  a  foul  blow 
struck  at  every  attempt  of  man  to  overthrow 

357 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

despotism.  Although  Burke  had  uttered  noble 
words  of  sympathy  for  Americans  in  their  war 
for  freedom,  and  although  he  had  been  the  warm 
friend  of  Paine,  as  soon  as  his  pamphlet  reached 
the  public,  Paine  answered  it.  He  never  allowed 
friendship  to  turn  him  from  the  path  of  right,  or 
to  wreathe  his  lips  with  a  lie. 

In  a  short  time  the  first  volume  of  the  "Rights 
of  Man"  appeared.  Paine  dedicated  this  work 
to  George  Washington  and  gave  the  proceeds 
from  its  sales  to  the  "Society  for  Constitutional 
Information."  The  second  volume  was  issued  a 
year  later.  The  work  created  the  greatest  en- 
thusiasm, both  in  England  and  France.  It  made 
Paine  an  outlaw  from  his  native  land,  and  gained 
him  a  seat  in  the  French  Convention. 

Paine  was  a  great  power  in  France,  but  his 
humane  principles  were  not  appreciated  by  men 
who  couli  talk  suavely,  but  act  like  beasts.  He 
was  honored  by  the  best  and  hated  by  the  worst 
of  men.  The  Revolution,  which  opened  the  Bas- 
tile  that  had  held  within  its  gloomy  walls  so  many 
of  the  brightest  minds  and  truest  hearts  of 
France,  was  hurried  from  a  desire  for  liberty  to 
a  demand  for  blood. 

When  Louis  XVI  fled  from  Paris,  the  cry  for 
his  execution  went  up  from  the  frenzied  mob. 
358 


LIFE    AND    APPRECIATIONS 

It  was  then  that  Paine  rose  to  the  sublimest 
heights  of  humanity.  While  he  would  trample 
the  crown  of  Louis  under  foot,  he  would  not  vote 
for  his  death,  and  said  to  the  infuriated  Assem- 
bly, "Kill  the  King  but  not  the  Man."  When 
Paine  asked  that  the  life  of  Louis  be  spared,  he 
saw  his  own  face  in  the  mirror  of  death,  but  he  did 
not  take  back  his  words.  The  King  went  to  the 
scaffold  and  Paine  went  to  prison. 

While  daily  expecting  to  be  carried  to  the 
guillotine,  Paine  wrote  his  "Age  of  Reason." 
He  dedicated  this  work  to  his  fellow-citizens  of 
the  United  States  in  these  words:  "I  put  the  fol- 
lowing work  under  your  protection.  It  contains 
my  opinion  upon  religion.  You  will  do  me  the 
justice  to  remember  that  I  have  always  stren- 
uously supported  the  right  of  every  man  to  his 
opinion,  however  different  that  opinion  might  be 
to  mine.  He  who  denies  to  another  this  right 
makes  a  slave  of  himself  to  his  present  opinion, 
because  he  precludes  himself  the  right  of  chang- 
ing it.  The  most  formidable  weapon  against 
errors  of  every  kind  is  reason.  I  have  never  used 
any  other  and  I  trust  I  never  shall." 

In  this  book  Paine  told  the  straight  truth 
about  the  Christian  Bible.  He  was  the  voice  of 
honesty  in  the  wilderness  of  hypocrisy.    Thomas 

359 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Paine  for  forty  years  battled  for  truth,  for  right, 
for  liberty,  for  reason.  He  had  the  only  religion 
fit  for  a  civilized  person  to  profess  or  practise. 
He  did  not  say,  "  He  that  believeth  and  is  bap- 
tized shall  be  saved,  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall 
be  damned,"  but  he  said,  "  To  do  good  is  my 
religion,"  and,  "  The  true  theology  of  man  is 
happiness  of  mind." 

Without  Thomas  Paine  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill  would  have  been  fought  in  vain,  and  the  sun 
of  liberty  would  have  gone  down  in  the  darkness 
of  Valley  Forge.  Without  Thomas  Paine  the 
light  of  political  independence  would  not  have 
followed  the  night  of  oppression,  and  America 
would  still  be  addressing  petitions  across  the  sea 
to  England's  diminutive  monarch. 


360 


